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Duke  University  Libraries 

President's  mes 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #90 

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PRESIDENTS  MESSAGE. 


To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 

of  the  Confederate  States : 

The  necessity  for  legislative  action,  arising  out  of  the  important 
events  that  have  marked  the  interval  since  your  adjournment,  and  my 
desire  to  have  the  aid  of  your  counsel  on  other  matters  of  grave 
public  interest,  render  your  presence  at  this  time  more  than  ordina- 
rily welcome.  Indeed  but  for  serious  obstacles  to  convoking  you  in 
extraordinary  session,  and  the  necessity  for  my  own  temporary  ab- 
sence from  the  seat  of  government,  I  would  have  invited  you  to  an 
earlier  meeting  than  that  fixed  at  the  date  of  your  adjournment. 

Grave  reverses  befell  our  arms  soon  after  your  departure  from  Rich- 
mond. Early  in  July  our  strongholds  at  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hud- 
son, together  with  their  entire  garrisons,  capitulated  to  the  combined 
land  and  naval  forces  of  the  enemy.  The  important  interior  position 
of  Jackson  next  fell  into  their  temporary  possession.  Our  unsuc- 
cessful assault  on  the  post  at  Helena,  was  followed  at  a  later  period  bj 
the  invasion  of  Arkansas;  and  the  retreat  of  our  army  from  Little 
Rock  gave  to  the  enemy  the  control  of  the  important  valley  in  whioh 
it  is  situated. 

The  resolute  spirit  of  the  people  soon  rose  superior  to  the  tempo- 
rary despondency  naturally  resulting  froji  these  reverses.  The  gal- 
lant troops,  so  ably  commanded  in  the  States  beyond  the  Mississippi, 
inflicted  repeated  defeats  on  the  invading  armies  in  Louisiana  and  on 
the  coast  of  Texas.  Detachments  of  troops  and  active  bodies  of  par- 
tizans  kept  up  so  effective  a  war  on  the  Mississippi  river  a3  practically 
to  destroy  its  value  as  an  avenue  of  commerce. 

The  determined  and  successful  defence  of  Charleston  against  the 
joint  land  and  naval  operations  of  the  enemy  afforded  an  inspiring  ex- 
ample of  our  ability  to  repel  the  attacks  even  of  the  iron-clad  fleet  on 
which  they  chiefly  rely  ;  while  on  the  northern  frontier  our  success 
was  still  more  marked. 

The  able  commander,  who  conducted  the  campaign  in  Virginia,  de- 
termined to  meet  the  threatened  advance  on  Richmond,  for  which  the 
enemy  had  made  long  and  costly  preparations,  by  forcing  their  armies 
to  cross  the  Potomac  and  fight  in  defence  of  their  own  capital  and 
homes.       Transferring  the  battle-field  to  their  own  soil  he  succeeded 


in  compelling  their  rapid  retreat  from  Virginia,  and  in  the  hard  fought 
battle  of  Gettysburg  inflicted  such  severity  of  punishment  as  dis- 
abled them  from  early  renewal  of  the  campaign  as  originally  projected. 
Unfortunately,  the  communications  on  which  our  general  relied  for 
receiving  his  supplies  of  munitions,  were  interrupted  by  extraordinary 
floods  which  so  swelled  the  Potomac  as  to  render  impassable  the  fords 
by  which  his  advance  had  been  made,  and  he  was  thus  forced  to  a 
withdrawn!  which  was  conducted  with  deliberation,  after  securing  large 
trains  of  captured  supplies,  and  with  a  constant  but  unaccepted  tender 
of  battle.  On  more  than  ope  occasion  the  enemy  has  since  made  de- 
monstrations of  a  purpose  to  advance,  invariably  followed  by  a  precip- 
itate retreat  to  entrenched  lines  on  the  approach  of  our  forces. 

The  effective  check  thus  opposed  to  the  advance  of  the  invaders  at 
all  points,  was  such  as  to  afford  hope  of  their  early  expulsion  from 
portions  of  the  territory  previously  occupied  by  them,  when  the 
country  was  painfully  surprised  by  the  intelligence  that  the  officer  in 
command  of  Cumberland  Gap,  had  surrendered  that  important  and 
easily  defensible  pass  without  firing  a  shot,  upon  the  summons  of  a 
force  still  believed  to  have  been  inadequate  to  it3  reduction,  and  when 
reinforcements  were  within  supporting  distance  and  had  been  ordered  to 
his  aid.  The  entire  garrison,  including  the  commander,  being  still 
held  prisoners  by  the  enemy,  I  am  unable  to  suggest  any  explana- 
tion of  this  disaster,  which  laid  open  eastern  Tennessee  and  south- 
western Virginia  to  hostile  operations,  and  broke  the  line  of  commu- 
nication between  the  seat  of  government  and  middle  Tennessee. 
This  easy  success  of  the  enemy  was  followed  by  an  advance  of  Gen'l 
Roseeranz  into  Georgia  snd  our  army  evacuated  Ohattauooga  and 
availed  itself  of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  of  winning,  on  the  field 
'Of  Chickamauga,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  decisive  victories  of  the 
•war.  This  signal  defeat  of  General  Rosecranz  was  followed  by  his 
retreat  into  Chattanooga,  where  his  imperilled  position  had  the  imme- 
diate effect  of  relieving  the  pressure  of  the  invasion  at  other  points, 
forcing  the  concentration,  for  his  relief,  of  'large  bodies  of  troops 
withdrawn  from  the  armies  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  in  ISTorthern 
Virginia.  The  combined  forces  thu:3  accumulated  against  us  in 
Tennessee,  so  greatly  outnumbered  our  army  as  to  encourage  the  enemy 
«tq  attack.  After  a  long  and  severe  battle,  in  which  great  carnage  was 
inflicted  on  him,  some  of  our  troops  inexplicably  abandoned  positions 
of  great  strength,  and  by  a  disorderly  retreat,  compelled  the  com- 
mander to  withdraw  the  forces  elsewhere  successful,  and  finally"  to  re- 
tire with  his  whole  army  to  a  position  some  twenty  or  thirty  miles  to  the 
rear.  It  is  believed  that  if  the  troops  who  yielded  to  the  assault, 
had  fought  with  the  valor  which  they  had  displayed  on  previous  oc- 
casions, and  which  was  manifested  in  this  battle  on  the  other  parts 
of  the  line,  the  enemy  would  have  been  repulsed  with  very  great 
slaughter,  and  our  country  would  have  escaped  the  misfortune,  and 
the  army  the  mortification  of  the  first  defeat  that  has  resulted  from 
misconduct  by  the  troops.  In  the  meantime,  the  army  of  General 
Burnside  was  driven  from  all  its  field  positions  in  eastern  Tennessee; 


and  forced  to  retreat  inca  its  entrenchments  at  Knoxville,  v  hi  -  R  r 
*ome  weeks,  it  was  threatened  with  capture  by  the  forces  undsi 
General  Longstreet.  No  information  lias  reached  me  of  ftie  final 
result  of  the  operations  of  our  commander,  though  intelligence  has 
arrived  of  his  withdrawal  from  that  place 

While,  therefore,  our  success  in  driving  the  enemy  from  our  soil 
has  not  equalled  the  expectations  confidently  entertained  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  cam;  Mgn'j  l^is  further  progress  has  been  chefcked  If 
we  are  forced  to  regret  losses  in  Tennessee  and  Arkansas,  we  are  not 
without  ground  for  congratulation  on  &a£Cesses  in  Louisiana  and  Texas 
On  the  sea -coast  be  is  exhausted  by  vain  eflbits  to  capture  our  portS, 
while  on  the  northern  frontier  he  has  in  turn  fblt  the  pressure  and 
dreads  the  renewal  of  invasion.  The  indomitable  course  and  perse- 
verance of  the  people  in  the  defence  of  their  homes  have  Nj?n  nobly 
attested  by  the  unanimity  with  which  the  Legislatures  of  Virginia, 
North  Caro'ina  and  Georgia  have  recently  given  expression  to  th*> 
popular  sentiment ;  and  like  manifestations  may  be  anticipated  from 
all  the  Stat1?.  Whatever  obstinacy  may  be  displayed  by  the  enamy 
in  his  desperate  sacrifices  of  money,  life  and  liberty  in  the  hope  of 
enslaving  us,  the  expeiience  of  mankind  lias  too  conclusively  shown 
the  superior  endurance  of  those  who  fight  For  home,  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence to  permit  any  doubt  of  the  result. 

FOREIGN  RELATIONS. 

I  regret  to  inform  you  that  there  has  been  no  improvement  in  the 
state  of  oar  relations  with  foreign  countries  since  my  message  in 
January  List.  On  the  contrary,  there  has  been  a  still  greater  diver- 
gence in  the  conduct  of  European  nations  from  that  practical  impi^r 
tiality  which  alone  deserves  the  name  of  neutrality,  and  their  action, 
in  some  eases,  has  assumed  a  character  positively  unfriendly. 

You  have  heretofore  been  informed  that,  by  common  understanding, 
the  initiative  in  all  action  touching  the  contest  on  this  continent 
had  been  left  by  foreign  powers  to  the  two  great  maritime  nations  ci 
western  Europe,  and  .that  the  governments  of  these  two  nations  had 
agreed  to  take  no  measures  without  previous  concert.  The  result  of 
these  arrangements  has,  therefore,  placed  it  in  the  power  of  either 
France  or  England  to  obstruct  at  pleasure  the  recognition  to  which 
the  Confederacy  is  justly  entitled,  or  even  to  prolong  the  continuance 
of  hostilities  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  if  the  policy  of  either  could 
be  promoted  by  the  postponement  of  peace.  Each,  too,  thus  becamo 
possessed  of  great  influence  in  so  shaping  the  general  exercise  of 
neutral  rights  in  Europe,  as  to  render  them  subservient  to  the  purpose 
of  aiding  one  of  the  belligerents  to  the  detriment  of  the  other.  I 
referred,  at  your  last  session,  to  some  of  the  leading  points  in  the 
course  pursued  by  professed  neutrals,  which  betrayed  a  partisan 
leaning  to  the  side  of  our  enemies,  but  events  have  since  occurred 
which  induce  me  to  renew  the  subject  in  greater  detail  ihiin  was  then 
deemed  necessary.     In  calling  to  ycur  attention  the  action  of  those 


governments,  I  shall  refer  to  the  documents  appended  to  President 
Lincoln's  messages,  and  to  their  own  correspondence,  as  disclosing 
the  true  nature  of  their  policy,  and  the  motives  which  guided  it.  T<T 
this  course  no  exception  can  be  taken,  inasmuch  as  our  attention  has 
been  invited  to  those  sources  ot  information  by  their  official  publica- 
tion. 

In  May,  1861,  the  Government  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty  informed 
our  enemies  that  it  had  not  ''allowed  any.  other  than  an  intermediate 
position  on  the  part  of  the  southern  States,''  and  assured  them  "  that 
the  sympathies  of  this  country  (Great  Britain)  were  rather  with  the 
North  than  with  the  South/' 

On  the  1st  day  of  June,  18ol,  the  British  Government  interdicted 
the  u  e  of  its  po>'ts  *;  to  armed  ships  and  privateers,  both  of  the 
United  State-3  and  the  so-called  Confederate  States,"  with  their  prizes. 
The  Sectary  of  State  of  the  United  States  fully  appreciated  the 
character  and  motive  of  this  interdiction,  when  he  observed  to  Lord 
JDyonn,  who  CwiiMiuiiicated  it,  "  that  this  measure,  and  that  of  the 
character  which  had  been  adopted  by  France,  would  probably 
prove  a  death  blow  to  southern  privateering." 

On  the  12th  June,  1861,  the  United  States  Minister  in  London 
informed  Her  Majesty's  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs  that  the  fact  of 
his  having  held  interviews  with  the  commissioners  of  this  government 
had  given  *;  great  dissatisfaction  "  and  that  a  protraction  of  this  rela- 
tion would  be  viewed  by  the  United  States  '*  as  hostile  in  spirit,  and 
to  r<  quire  some  corresponding  action  accordingly."  In  response  to 
this  intimation  Her  Majesty's  Secretary  assured  the  minister  that  "he 
had  no  expectation  of  seeing  them  any  more." 

By  proclamation,  issued  on  the  19th  and  27th  April,  1S6I,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  proclaimed  the  blockade  of  the  entire  coast  of  the  Con- 
federacy, extending  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande,  embracing^ 
recording  to  the  returns  of  the  United  States  coast  survey,  a  coast 
line  of  three  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-nine  statute  miles,  on 
w&ich  the  number  of  rivers,  bays,  harbors,  inlets,  sounds,  and  passes 
is  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine.  The  navy  possessed  by  the  United 
Sjatts  for  enforcing  this  blockade  was  stated  in  the  reports  communi- 
cated by  Pre.ident  Lincoln  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to 
consist  of  twenty-four  -vessels  of  all  classes  in  commission,  of  which 
half  were  in  distant  seas.  The  absurdity  of  the  pretension  of  such 
a  blockade,  in  face  of  the  authoritative  declaration  of  the  maritime" 
rights  of  neutrals  made  at  Paris,  in  1856,  was  so  glaring  that  the 
attempt  was  regarded  as  an  experiment  on  the  forbearance  of  neutral 
powers,  which  they  would  promptly  resist.  This  conclusion  was  jus- 
tified by  the  fact  that  the  Governments  of  France  and  Great  Britain 
determined  that  it  was  necessary  for  their  interests  to  obtain  from 
both  belligerents  "  securities  concerning  the  proper  treatment  of 
neutrals."  In  the  instructions  which  '.'  confided  the  negotiation  on 
this  matter"  to  the  British  Consul  in  Charleston,  he  was  informed 
that  "the  most  perfect  accord  on  this  question  exists  between  Her 
Majesty's  Government   and   the  Government   of  the  Emperor  of  the 


French,"  and  these  instructions  were  accompanied  by  a  copy  of  the 
despatch  of  the  British  Foreign  office  of  the  18th  May,  1861,  ttating 
that  there  was  no  difference  of  opinion  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  as  to  the  validity  of  the  principles  enunciated  in  tfie 
fourth  article  of  the  declaration  of  Paris  in  reference  >to  blockades. 
Your  predecessors  of  the  Provisional  Congress  had  therefore  no  diffi- 
culty in  proclaiming,  nor  I  in  approving,  the  resolutions  which  ab^u- 
doned  in  favor  of  Great  Britain  and  France  our  right  to  capture 
enemy's  property  when  covered  by  the  flags  of  those  powers.  The 
"  securities"  desired  by  those  governments  were  understood  by  as  u 
be  required  from  both  belligerents.  Neutrals  were  exposed  on  our 
part  to  the  exercise  of  the  belligerent  right  of  capturing  their  vessels 
when  conveying  the  property  of  our  enemies.  They  were  exposed,  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  to  interruption  in -their  unquestioned 
right  of  trading  with  us  by  the  declaration  of  the  pnper  blockade 
above  referred  to.  We  had  no  reason  to  doubt  the  good  faith  of  the 
proposal  made  to  us,  nor  to  suspect  that  we  were  to  be  the  only  parties 
bound  by  its  acceptance.  It  is  truo  that  the  instructions  of  the  neutral 
powers  informed  their  agents  that  it  was  "essential  under  present 
circumstances  that  they  should  act  with  great  caution  in  order  to  avoid 
raising  the  question  of  the  recognition  of  the  new  Confederation,"  and 
that  the  understanding  on  the  subject  did  not  assume  for  tint  reason 
the  shape  of  a  formal  convention.  But  it  was  not  deemed  just  by  us 
to  decline  the  arrangement  on  this  ground,  as  little  more  than  ninety 
days  had  then  elapsed  since  the  arrival  of  our  commissioners  in  Europe, 
and  neutral  nations  were  fairly  entitled  to  a  reasonable  delay  in  acting 
on  a  subject  of  so  much  importance,  and  which,  from  their  point  of 
view,  presented  difficulties  that  we,  perhaps,  did  not  fully  appreciate 
Certain  it  is  that  the  action  of  this  government  on  the  occasio 
its  faithful  performance  of  its  own  engagements  have  been  such  as  to 
entitle  it  to  expect  on  the  part  of  those  who  sought  in  their  own 
interests  a  mutual  understanding,  the  most  scrupulous  adherence  to 
their  own  promises.  I  feel  constrained  to  inform  you  that  in  this 
expectation  we  have  been  disappointed,  and  that  not  only  hare  the 
governments  which  entered  into  these  arrangements  yielded  to  the 
prohibition  against  commerce  with  U3,  which  li  is  been  dictated  by  the 
United  States  in  defiance  of  the  law  of  nations,  but  that  this  conces- 
sion of  their  neutral  rights  to  our  detriment  has  on  more  than  one 
occasion  been  claimed  in  intercourse  with  our  enemies,  as  an  evidence 
of  friendly  feeling  towards  them.  A  few  extracts  from  the  corres- 
pondence of  Her  Majesty's  Chief  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs  will  suffice,  to  show  marked  encouragement  to  the  United  States 
to  persevere  in  its  paper  blockade,  and  unmistakable  intimations  that 
Her  Majesty's  Government  would  not  contest  its  validity. 

On  the  21st  May,  1861,  Earl  Russell  pointed  out  to  the  United 
States  Minister  in  London,  that  "  the  blockade  might  no  doubt  be 
made  effective,  considering  the  small  number  of  harbors,  on  the  south- 
ern coast,  even  though  the  extent  of  3,000  miles  were  comprehended 
in  terms  of  that  blockade." 


6 

On  the  1 4 tli  January,  1862,  Her  Majesty's  Minister  in  "Washing- 
ton, communicated  to  his  government,  that  in  extenuation  of  the 
barbarous  attempt  to  destroy  the  port  of  Charleston  by  sinking  a  stone 
fieet  in  the  harbor.  Mr.  Seward  had  explained  "  that  the  government 
of  the  United  States* hid,  last  spring,  with  a  navy  very  little  pre- 
pared for  so  "extensive  an  operation,  undertaken  to  blockade' upwards 
of  §  000  miles  of  coast.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  had  reported 
..  coul  I  I  p  up  the  "large  holes"  by  means  of  his  ships,  but 
could  not. stop  up  the  "small  ones."  It  had  been  f;;und 
;  ;,  therefore,  to  close   some  of  the  numerous  small   inlets  by 

-     '       ;  vessels  in  the  ■i.'', 

6th    May,  18(2,  s;o  far  from  claiming  the  light  of  British 
as  neutrals  to   trade    with  us  as  belligerents  and  to  disregard 
the  blockade  ou  thre  ground  of  this   explicit  confession  by  our  enemy 
:f  ::  ;    inability    to   render  it  effective,   Tier   Majesty's    Secretary   of 
jign   Affairs,  claimed  credit  with  the  United  States  for 
fi        lly   action    in*  respecting   it.     His   Lordship    stated    that    "the 
United  States  Goveri.meufc,  on  the  allegation  of  a  rebellion  pervading 
from   nine   to  eleven  States   of  the  Union,  have  now,  for  more   than 
twelve  months,  endeavored  to  maintain  a  blockade  of  three  thousand 
>  of  coast.      This   blockade,    kept    up  i  I y.  but  when   en- 

forced, enforced  severely,  has  seriously  injured  the  trade   and  manu- 
;  S  the  Unite  1  Kingdom.     Thousands  are  now  obliged  to  resort 

to  the   p  or  rates   for  subsistence  owing  to  this  blockade.      Yet  Her 
Government  have  never  sought  to  take  advantage  of  the  ob- 
vious imperfections,  of  this  blockade,  in  order  to  declare  it  ineffective. 
They  have,  to  the  loss  and  detriment  of  the   British   nation^ scrupu- 
lously observed  the  duties  of  Great  Britain  towards  a  friendly  State." 
d    on  the  22d  September,  1862,  the  same  noble  Earl  asserted 
'      United  States  were  "very  far  indeed"  from  being  in  "a. con- 
dition to  ask  other  nations  to  assume  that  every  port  of  the  coasts  of 
styled  Confederate  States  is  effectively  blockaded." 
When,  in    view   of    these  facts;   of   the   obligation   of  the  ^British 
o         i  to  adhere  to  the  pledge  made  by  their  government  at  Paris,  in 
?   to   this  Confederacy   in    1861;  and  of  these  re- 
peated and  explicit  avowals  of  the  imperfection,  irregularity   and  iri- 
mcy   of   the   pretended   blockade   of    our   coat,    I   directed   our 
Commissioner   at  London,  to  call   upon   the    British   Government   to 
redeem  its  promise  and  to  withhold  its  moral   aid    and  sanction  from 
the   flagrant   violation  of   public   law   committed  by  oar  enemies,  we 
were  informed  that  Her  Majesty's   Government  could  not  regard  the 
bfo'ekade  of  the  southern  ports  as  having  been  otherwise  than    "  prac- 
tically effective,"  in  February.  1862,  and  that  u  tne  manner  in  which 
>t  has  since  been   enforced,  gives  to  neutral  governments  no  excuse 
for  asserting  that  the  blockade  has  not  been  efficiently  maintained." 
We  wore  further  informed,  when  we  insisted  that  by  the  terms  of  our 
agreement,  no  blockade   was   to  be  considered  effective  unless  "  suf- 
ficient really   to  prevent  access  to  our  coast,"  "  that  the  declaration 
of  Paris,  was  in  truth,  directed  against  blockades  not  sustained  by  any 


actual  force,  or  sustained  by  a  notoriously  inadequate  force,  such  as 
the  occasional  appearance  of  a  man-of-war  in  the  offing,  or  the  like." 

It  was  impossible  that  this  mode  of  construing  an  agreement,  so  as 
to  make  its  terms  mean  almost  the  reverse  of  what  they  plainly  con- 
veyed, could  be  considered  otherwise  than  as  a  notification  of  the  refusal 
of  the  British  Government  to  remain  bound  by  its  agreement,  or  longer 
to  respect  those  articles  of  the  declaration  of  Paris,  which  had  been 
repeatedly  denounced  by  British  statesmen,  and  had  been  characterised 
by  Earl  Russell,  as  "very  imprudent"  and  " most  unsatisfactory.*1 

If  any  doubt  remained  of  the  motives  by  which  the  British  Minis- 
try have  been  actuated  in  their  conduct,  it  would  be  completely  dissipa- 
ted by.  the  distinct  avowals  and  explanations  contained  in  the  pub- 
lished speech  recently  made  by  Her  Majesty's  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs.  In  commenting  on  the  remonstrances  of  this  government 
against  the  countenance  given  to  an  ineffective  blockade,  the  follow- 
ing language  is  used  :  "  It  is  said  we  have,  contrary  to  the  declara- 
tions of  Paris,  contrary  to  international  law,  permitted  the  blockade 
of  3,0(10  miles  of  American  coast.  It  is  quite  true  we  did  so,  and 
the  presumable  cause  of  complaint  is  quite  true,  that  although  the 
blockade  is  kept  up  by  a  sufficient  number  of  ships,  yet  these  ships 
were  sent  into  the  United  States  navy  in  a  hurry,  and  are  i;l  fitted  for 
the  purpose  and  did  not  keep  up  so  completely  and  effectively  as  was 
required^  an  effective  blockade," 

This  unequivocal  confession  of  violation,  both  of  agreement  with 
us  and  of  international  law  is  defended  on  grounds,  the  validity  of 
which  we  submit  with  confidence  to  the  candid  judgment  of  man- 
kind. 

These  grounds  are  thus  stated:  "  Still  looking  at  the  law  of  na- 
tions it  was  a  blockade,  we,  as  a  great  belligerent  power  in  former 
times,  should  have  acknowledged.  We,  ourselves,  had  a  blockade  of 
upwards  of  5,000  mile?,  and  it  did  seem  to  me  that  we  were  bound  in 
justice  to  the  Federal  States  of  America  to  acknowledge  that  blockade. 
But  there  was  another  reason  which  weighed  with  me.  Our  people 
were  suffering  severely  for  the  want  of  that  material  which  was  the 
main  staff  of  their  industry,  and  it  was  a  question  of  self  interest 
whether  we  should  not  break  the  blockade.  But  in  my  opinion  the 
men  of  England  woul  1  have  been  for  ever  infamous  if,  for  the  sake  of 
their  own  interest,  they  had  violated  the  law  of  nations  and  made  war 
in  conjunction  with  these  slaveholding  States  of  America  against  the 
Federal  States." 

In  the  second  of  these  reasons  our  rights  are  not  involved  ;  although 
it  may  be  permitted  to  observe  that  the  conduct  of  governments  has 
not  heretofore  to  my  knowledge  been  guided  by  the  principle  that  it 
is  infamous  to  assert  their  rights,  whenever  the,  invasion  of  those 
rights  creates  severe  suffering  among  their  people,  and  injuriously 
affects  great  interests.  But  the  intimation  that  relations  with  these 
States  would  be  discreditable  because  they  are  slaveholding,  would 
probably  have  been  omitted  if  the  official  personage  who  has  pub- 
lished it  to  the  world  had  remembered  that  these  States  were,  when  colo- 


nies,  made  slaveholding  by  the  direct  exercise  of  the  power  of  Great 
Britain,  whose  dependencies  they  were,  and  whose  interests  in  the 
slave-trade  were  then  supposed  to  require  that  her  colonies  should  be 
made  slave-holding. 

But  the  other  ground  stated  is  of  a  very  grave  character.  It  a.s- 
serts  that  a  violation  of  the  law  of  nations  by  Great  Britain  in  1807, 
when  that  government  declared  a  paper  blockade  of  2,000  miles  of 
coast,  (a  violation  then  defended  by  her  courts  and  jurists  on  the  sole 
ground  that  her  action  was  retaliatory,)  affords  a  justification  for  a 
similar  outrage  on  neutral  rights  by  the  United  States,  in  1861,  for 
which  no  palliation  can  be  suggested;  and  that  Great  Britain  "is 
bound,  in  justice  to  the  Federal  States,"  to  make  return  for  the  ,war 
waged  against  her  by  the  United  States  in  resistance  of  her  illegal 
blockade  of  1807,  by  an  acquiescence  in  the  Federal  illegal  blockade 
of  1861.  The  most  alarming  feature  in  this  statement  is  its  admis- 
sion of  a  just  claim  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to  require  of 
Great  Britain,  during  this  war,  a  disregard  of  the  recognised  princi- 
ples of  modern  public  law  and  of  her  own  compacts,  whenever  any 
questionable  conduct  of  Great  Britain,  "in  former  times,"  can  be 
cited  as  a  precedent.  It  is  not  inconsistent  with  respect  and  admira- 
tion for  the  great  people  whose  government  have  given  us  this  warn- 
ing, to  suggest  that  their  history,  like  that  of  mankind  in  general, 
offers  exceptional  instances  of  indefensible  conduct  "  in  former  times  ;" 
and  we  may  well  deny  the  morality  of  violating  recent  engagements 
through  deference  to  the  evil  precedents  of  the  past. 

After  defending,  in  the  manner  just  stated,  the  course  of  the  British 
Government  on  the  subject  of  the  blockade,  Her  Majesty's  Foreign 
Secretary  takes  care  to  leave  no  doubt  of  the  further  purpose  of  the 
British  government  to  prevent  our  purchase  of  vessels  in  Great  Britain, 
while  supplying  our  enemies  with  rifles  and  other  munitions  of  war, 
and  states  the  intention  to  apply  to  Parliament  for  the  furtherance  of 
this  design.  He  gives  to  the  United  States  the  assurance  that  he  will 
do  in  their  favor  not  only  "  everything  that  the  law  of  nations  requires, 
everything  that  the  present  foreign  enlistment  act  requires,"  but  that 
he  will  ask  the  sanction  of  Parliament  "  to  further  measures  that  Her 
Majesty's  ministers  may  still  add."  This  language  is  so  unmistakably 
an  official  exposition  of  the  policy  adopted  by  the  British  Government 
in  relation  to  our  affairs,  that  the  duty  imposed  on  me  by  the  Consti- 
tution of  giving  you  from  time  to  time  "information  of  the  state  of 
the  Confederacy,"  would  not  have  been  performed  if  I  had  failed  to 
place  it  distinctly  before  you. 

I  refer  you  for  fuller  details  on  this  whole  subject  to  the  corres- 
pondence of  the  State  Department  which  accompanies  this  message. 
The  facts  which  I  have  briefly  narrated  are,  I  trust,  sufficient  to  enable 
you  to  appreciate  the  true  nature  of  the  neutrality  professed  in  this  war. 
It  is  not  in  my  power  to  apprise  you  to  what  extent  the  Government  of 
France  shares  the  views  so  unreservedly  avowed  by  that  of  Great 
Britain,  no  published  correspondence  of  the  French  Government 
on  the  subject  having  been  received.     No  public  protest  nor  opposi- 


tion,  however,  has  been  made  by  His  Imperial  Majesty  against  the 
prohibition  to  trade  with  us,  imposed  on  French  citizens  by  the  paper 
blockade  of  the  United  States,  although  I  have  reason  to  believe  that 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  on  his  part  to  secure  the  assent  of 
the  British  Government  to  a  course  of  action  more  consonant  with 
the  dictates  of  public  law  and  with  the  demands  of  justice  towards  us. 
The  partiality  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  in  favor  of  our 
enemies  has  been  further  evinced  in  the  marked  difference  of  its  con- 
duct on  the  subject  of  the  purchase  of  supplies  by  the  two  bellige- 
rents. This  difference  has  been  conspicuous  since  the  very  commence- 
ment of  the  war.  As  early  as  the  1st  May,  1861,  the  British 
Minister  in  Washington,  was  informed  by  the  Secretary  of  State  of 
the  United  States  that  he  had  sent  agents  to  England,  and  Vnat  others 
would  £0  to  France  to  purchase  arms,  and  this  fact  war,  communicated 
to  the  British  Foreign  Office,  which  interposed  no  objection.  Yet  in 
October  of  the  same  year,  Earl  Russel  entertained  the  complaint  of 
the  United  States  Minister  in  London,  that  the  Confederate  States 
were  importing  contraband  of  war  from  the  island  of  Nassau,  directed 
inquiry  into  the  matter  and  obtained  a  report  from  the  authorities  of 
the  island  denying  the  allegations,  which  report  was  enclosed  to  Mr. 
Adams  and  received  by  him  as  satisfactory  evidence  to  dissipate  "  the 
suspicion  naturally  thrown  upon  the  authorities  of  Nassau  by  that 
unwarrantable  act."  So,  too,  when  the  Confederate  Government  pur- 
chased in  Great  Britain,  as  a  neutral  country,  (and  with  strict 
observance  both  of  the  law  of  nations  and  the  municipal  law  of  Great 
Britain,)  vessels  which  were  subsequently  armed  and  commissioned 
as  vessels -of  war,  after  they  had  been  far  removed  from  English 
waters,  the  British  Government,  in  violation  of  its  own  laws  and  in 
deference  to  the  importunate  demands  of  the  United  States,  made  an 
ineffectual  attempt  to  seize  one  vessel,  and  did  actually  seize  and 
detain  another  which  touched  at  the  island  of  Nassau  on  her  way  to 
a  Confederate  port,  and  subjected  her  to  an  unfounded  prosecution  at 
the  very  time  when  cargoes  of  munitions  of  war  were  being  openly 
shipped  from  British  ports  to  New  York,  to  be  used  in  warfare  against 
us.  Even  now  the  public  journals  bring  intelligence  that  the  British 
Government  has  ordered  the  seizure,  in  a  British  port,  of  two  vessels, 
on  the  suspicion  that  they  may  have  been  sold  to  this  Government, 
and  that  they  may  be  hereafter  armed  and  equipped  in  our  service, 
while  British  subjects  are  engaged  in  Ireland  by  tens  of  thousands  to 
proceed  to  the  United  States  for  warfare  against  the  Confederacy,  in 
defiance  both  of  the  law  of  nations  and  of  the  express  terms  of  the 
British  statutes,  and  are  transported  in  British  ships,  without  an  effort 
at  concealment,  to  the  ports  of  the  United  States,  there  to  be  armed 
with  rifles  imported  from  Great  Britain  and  to  be  employed  against 
our  people  in  a  war  for  conquest.  No  royal  prerogative  is  invoked, 
no  executive  interference  is  interposed  against  this  flagrant  breach  of 
municipal  and  international  law,  on  the  part  of  our  enemies,  while 
strained  constructions  are  placed  on  existing  statutes,  new  enactments 
proposed,  and  questionable  expedients  devised  for  precluding  the  pos- 


10 

ftibility  of  purchase,  by  this  Government,  of  vessels  that  are  useless 
for  belligerent  purposes,  unless  hereafter  armed  and  equipped  outside 
of  the  neutral  jurisdiction  of  Great  Britain. 

For  nearly  three  years,  this  government  has  exercised  unquestioned 
jurisdiction  over  many  millions  of  willing  nnd  united  people.  It  has 
met  and  defeated  vast  armies  of  invaders,  who  have  in  vain  sought 
its  subversion.  Supported  by  the  confidence  and  affection  of  its 
citizens,  the  Confederacy  has  lacked  no  element  which  distinguishes 
an  independent  nation,  according  to  the  principles  of  public  law.  Its 
legislative,  executive  and  judicial  departments,  each  in  its  sphere, 
have  performed  their  appropriate  functions  with  a  regularity  as  undis- 
itjrbed  as  in  a  time  of  profound  peace,  and  the  whole  energies  of  the 
people  have  been  developed  in  the  organization  of  vast  armies,  while 
their  righi^  and  liberties  have  rested  secure  under  the  protection  (f 
the  courts  of  justice.  This  Confederacy  is  either  independent,  or  it 
is  a  dependency  of  the  United  States,  for  no  other  earthly  power 
claims  the  right  to  govern  it.  Without  one  historic  fact  on  which 
the  pretension  can  resr,  without  one  line  or  word  of  treaty  or  cove- 
nant, which  can  give  color  to  title,  the  United  States  have  asserted 
and  the  British  Government  has  chosen  to  concede  that  these  sover- 
eign States  arc  dependencies  of  the  government  which  is  administered 
at  "Washington.  Great  Britain  has  accordingly  entertained  with  that 
government,  the  clo-est  and  most  intimate  relations,  while  refusing 
on  its  demand,  ordinary  amicable  intercourse  with  us,  and  has,  under 
arrangements  made  with  the  other  nations  of  Europe,  not  only  de- 
nied our  just  claim  of  admission  into  the  family  of  nations,  but  inter- 
posed a  passive,  though  effectual  bar,  to  the  acknowledgement  of  our 
rights  by  other  powers.  So  soon  as  it  had  become  apparent,  by  the 
declarations  of  the  British  Ministers,  in  the  debates  of  the  British 
Parliament  in  July  last,  that  Her  Majesty's  Government  w.-.s  deter- 
mined to  persist  indefinitely  in  a  course  of  policy  which,  under  pro- 
fessions of  neutrality,  had  become  subservient  to  the  designs  of  our 
enemy,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  recall  the  Commissioner  formerly  ac- 
credited to  that  court,  and  the  correspondence  on  the  subject  is  sub- 
mitted to  you. 

It  is  due  to  you  and  to  our  country  that  this  full  statement  should 
be  made  of  the  just  grounds  which  exist  for  dissatisfaction  with  the 
conduct  of  the  British  Government.  I  am  well  aware  that  we  are 
unfortunately  without  adequate  remedy  for  the  injustice  under  which 
we  have  suffered  at  the  hands  of  a  powerful  nation,  at  a  juncture 
when  our  entire  resources  are  absorbed  in  the  defence  of  our  lives, 
liberties  and  independence,  against  an  enemy  possessed  of  greatly 
superior  numbers  and  material  resources.  Claiming  no  favor,  desir- 
ing no  aid,  conscious  of  our  own  ability  to  defend  our  own  rights, 
against  the  utmost  efforts  of  an  infuriate  foe,  we  had  thought  it  not 
extravagant  to  expect  that  assistance  would  be  withheld  from  our 
enemies,  and  that  the  conduct  of  foreign  nations  would  be  marked  by 
a  genuine  impartiality  between  the  belligerents.  It  was  not  supposed 
that  a  professed  neutrality  would  be  so  conducted  as  to  justify  the 


11 

Foreign  Secretary  of  the  British  nation, in  explaining,  in  correspond*  ■' 
ence  with  our  enemies,  how  "  the  impartial  observance  of  neutral 
obligations  by  Her  Majesty's  Government  lias  thus  beeii  exceedingly 
advantageous  to  the  cause  of  the  more  powerful  of  the  two  contend- 
ing parties."  The  British  Government  may  deem  this  war  a  favsr- 
able  occasion  for  establishing,  by  the  temporary  sacrifice  of  their 
neutral  rights,  a  precedent  which  shall  justify  the  future  exercise  of 
those  extreme  belligerent  pretensions  that  their  naval  power  renders 
s">  formidable.  The  opportunity  for  obtaining  the  tacit  assent  of 
European  Governments  to  a  line  of  conduct  which  ignores  the  obliga- 
tions of  the  declaration  of  Paris,  and  treats  that  instrument  rather  as 
a  theoretical  exposition  of  principles  than  a  binding  agreement,  may 
be  considered  by  the  British  Ministry  as  justifying  them  in  seekincra 
great  advantage  for  their  own  country  at  the  expense  of  ours.  But 
we  cannot  permit,  without  protest,  the  assertion  that  international 
law  or  morals  icgard  as  "impartial  neutrality"  conduct  avowed  to  be 
"  exceedingly  advantageous"  to  one  of  the  belligerents. 

I  have  stated  i hat  we  are  without  adequate  remedy  against  the 
injustice  under  which  we  suifer.  There  are  but  two  measures  that 
seem  applicable  to  the  present  condition  of  olir  relations  with  neutral 
powers.      <  •  to    imitate  the    wrong   of  which    we   complain,   to 

retaliate  by  the  declaration  of  a  paper  blockade  of  the  coast  of  the 
•United  States,  and  to  capture  all  neutral  vessels  trading  with  their 
ports  that  our  cruisers  can  intercept,  on  the  high  seas.  This  measure 
I  cannot  recommend.  It  is  true  that,  in  so  doing,  we  should  but 
follow  the  precedents  set  by  Great  Britain  and  Franco  in  the  Berlin 
and  Milan  decrees,  and  the  British  orders  in  council  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present,  century.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  we, .ourselves, 
protested  against  those  very  measures   .  :   violations  of  the  law 

of  nations',  and  declared  the  attempts  to  excuse  them,  on  the  ground 
cf  their  being  retaliatory,  utterly  insufficient.  Those  blockades 
are  now  quoted  by  writers  on  public  law  as  a  standing  reproach  on 
the  good  name  of  the  nations  who  were  betrayed  by  temporary  exas- 
peration into  wrong  doing,  and  ought  to  be  regarded  rather  as  errors 
to  be  avoided,  than  as  examples  to  be  followed. 

The  other  measure  is  not  open  to  this  objection  The  second  article 
of  the  declaration  of  Paris  which  provides  "that  the  neutral  flag 
covers  enemy's  goods,  with  the  exception  of  contraband  of  war"  was 
a  new  concession  by  belligerents  in  favor  of  neutrals,  and  not  simply 
the  enunciation  of  an  acknowledged  pre-existing  rule  like  the  fourth 
article  which  referred  to  blockades.  To  this  concession  we  bound 
ourselves  by  the  convention  with  Great  Britain  and  France,  which 
took  the  shape  of  the  resolutions  adopted  by  your  predecessors  on  the 
13th  August.  1861.  The  consideration  tendered  us  for  that  conces- 
sion has  been  withheld.  We  have,  therefore,  the  undeniable  right 
to  refuse  longer  to  remain  bound  by  a  compact  which  the  other  party 
refuses  to  fulfill.  But  we  should  not  forget  that  war  is  but  temporary 
and  that  we  desire  that  peace  shall  be  permanent.  The  future  policy 
of  the  Confederacy  must  ever  be  to  uphold  neutral  rights  to  their  full 


12 

extent.  The  principles  of  the  declaration  of  Paris  commend  them- 
selves to  our  judgment  as  more  just,  more  humane,  and  more  conso- 
nant with  modern  civilization  than  those  Vdligerent  pretensions  which 
great  naval  powers  have  heretofore  sought  to  introduce  in^o  the  mari- 
time code.  To  forego  our  undeniable  right  to  the  exercise  of  those 
pretentions  is  a  policy  higher,  worthier  of  us  and  of  our  cause  than 
to  revoke  our  adhesion  to  principles  that  we  approve.  Let  our  hope 
for  redress  rest  rather  on  a  returning  sense  of  justice  which  carTno: 
fail  to  awaken  a  great  people  to  the  consciousness,  that  the  warjin  which 
we  are  engaged  ought  rather  to  be  made  a  reason  for  forbearance  of 
advantage,  than  an  occasion  for  the  unfriendly  conduct  of  which  we 
make  just  complaint. 

The  events  of  the  last  year  have  produced  important  changes  in  the 
condition  of  our  southern  neighbor.  The  occupation  of  the  capital 
of  Mexico  by  the  French  army,  and  the  establishment  of  a  provisional 
government,  followed  by  a  radical  change  in  the  constitution  of  the 
country,  have  excited  lively  interest.  Although  preferring  our  own 
government  and  institutions  to  those  of  other  countries,  we  can  have 
no  disposition  to  contest  the  exercise  by  them  of  the  same  right  of 
self-government  which  we  assert  for  ourselves.  If  the  Mexican  people 
prefer  a  monarchy  to  a  republic,  it  is  our  plain  duty  cheerfully  to 
acquiesce  in  their  decision,  and  to  evince  a  sincere  and  friendly  interest 
in  their  prosperity.  If,  however,  the  Mexicans  prefer  maintaining 
their  former  institutions  we  have  no  reason  to  apprehend  any  obstacle 
to  the  free  exercise  of  their  choice.  The  Emperor  of  the  French  has 
solemnly  disclaimed  any  purpose  to  impose  on  Mexico  a  form  of  gov- 
ernment not  acreptable  to  the  nation  ;  and  the  eminent  personage  to 
whom  the  throne  has  been  tendered,  declines  its  acceptance,  unless 
the  offer  be  sanctioned  by  the  suffrages  of  the  people.  In  either  event, 
therefore,  we  may  confidently  expect  the  continuance  of  those  peace- 
ful relations  which  have  been  maintained  on  the  frontier,  and  even  a 
large  development  of  the  commerce  already  existing  to  the  mutual 
advantage  of  the  two  countries. 

It  has  been  found  necessary  since  your  adjournment  to  take  action 
on  the  subject  of  certain  foreign  consuls  within  the  Confederacy.  The 
nature  of  this  action  and  the  reasons  on  which  it  was  based  are  so 
fully  exhibited  in  the  correspondence  of  the  State  Department  which 
is  transmitted  to  you,  that  no  additional  comment  is  required. 

In  connection  with  this  subject  of  our  relations  with  foreign 
countries,  it  is  deemed  opportune  to  communicate  my  views  in  refer- 
ence to  the  treaties  made  by  the  government  of  the  United  States 
at  a  date  anterior  to  our  separation,  and  which  were  conse- 
quently binding  on  us  as  well  as  on  foreign  powers  when  the 
separation  took  effect.  It  was  partly  with  a  view  to  entering  into  such 
arrangements  as  the  change  in  our  government  had  made  necessary 
that  we  felt  it  our  duty  to  send  commissioners  abroad,  for  the  purpose 
of  entering  into  the  negotiations  proper  to  fix  the  relative  rights  and 
obligations  of  the  parties  to  those  treaties.  As  this  tender  on  our 
part  has  been  declined  ;  as  foreign  nations  have  refused  us  the  benefit 


13 

of  the  treaties  to  which  we  were  parties,  they  certainly  have  ceased 
to  be  binding  on  us,  and  in  my  opinion,  our  relations  with  European 
nations  are,  therefore,  now  controlled  exclusively  by  the  general  rules 
of  the  law  of  nations.  It  is  proper  to  add  that  these  remarks  are 
intended  to  apply  solely  to  treaty  obligations  towards  foreign  govern- 
ments, and  have  no  reference  to  rights  of  individuals. 

FINANCES. 

The  state  of  the  public  finances  is  such  as  to  demand  your  earliest 
and  most  earnest  attention.  I  need  hardly  say  that  a  prompt  and 
efficacious  remedy  for  the  present  condition  of  the  currency  is  neces- 
sary to  the  successful  performance  of  the  functions  of  government. 
Fortunately,  the  resources  of  our  country  are  so  ample,  and  the  spirit 
of  our  people  so  devoted  to  its  cause  that  they  are  ready  to  make  any 
necessary  contribution.  Relief  is  thus  entirely  within  our  reach  if  we 
have  the  wisdom  to  legislate  in  such  manner  as  to  render  available  the 
means  at  our  disposal. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  we  were  far  from  anticipating  the 
magnitude  and  duration  of  the  struggle  in  which  we  were  engaged. 
The  most  sagacious  foresight  could  not  have  predicted  that  the  pas- 
sions of  the  northern  people  would  lead  them  blindly  to  the  sacrifice 
of  life,  treasure  and  liberty  in  so  vain  a  hope  as  that  of  subjugating 
thirteen  independent  States  inhabited  by  many  millions  of  people 
whose  birthright  of  freedom  is  dearer  to  them  than  life.  A  long 
exemption  from  direct  taxation  by  the  general  government  had  created 
an  aversion  to  its  raising  revenue  by  any  other  means  than  by  duties 
on  imports,  and  it  was  supposed  that  these  duties  would  be  ample  for 
current  peace  expenditure,  while  the  means  for  conducting  the  war 
could  be  raised  almost  exclusively  by  the  use  of  the  public  credit. 

The  first  action  of  the  provisional  Congress  was  therefore  confined 
to  passing  a  tariff  law  and  to  raising  a  sum  of  fifteen  millions  of  dol- 
lars by  loan,  with  a  pledge  of  a  small  export  duty  on  cotton  to  provide 
for  the  redemption  of  the  debt. 

At  its  second  session  war  was  declared  to  exist  between  the  Confed- 
eracy and  the  United  States,  and  provision  was  made  for  the  issue  of 
twenty  millions  of  dollars  in  treasury  note*,  and  for  borrowing  thirty 
millions  of  dollars  on  bonds.  The  tariff  was  revised,  and  preparatory 
measures  taken  to  enable  the  Congress  to  levy  internal  taxation  at  its 
succeeding  session.  These  laws  were  passed  in  May,  and  the  States  of 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas  having  joined 
the  Confederacy,  the  Congress  adjourned  to  meet  in  the  city  of  Rich- 
mond in  the  following  month  of  July. 

Prior  to  the  assembling  of  your  predecessors  in  Richmond  at  their 
third  session  near  the  end  of  July,  1861,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  had  developed  in  hi3  message  the  purpose  "  to  make  the  contest- 
a  short  and  a  decisive  one,"  and  had  called  on  Congress  for  400,000 
men  and  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  The  Congress  had  exceeded 
£he  Executive  recommendation  and  had  authorized  the  levy  of  half  a 


tl 

million  of  volunteers,  besides  largely  increasing  the  regular  land  and 
naval  forces  of  the  United  States.  The  necessity  thus  first  became 
urgent  that  a.financial  scheme  should  be  devised  on  a  basis  sufficiently 
lar^e  for  the  vast  proportions  of  the  contest  with  which  we  were 
threatened.  Knowing  that  the  struggle,  instead  of  being  "  short  and 
decisive"  would  be  indefinite  in  duration,  and  could  only  end  when 
the  United  States  should  awaken  from  their  delusion  of  conquest,  a 
permanent  system  was  required,  fully  adapted  to  the  great  exigencies 
before  us. 

The  plan  devised  by  Congress  at  that  time  was  based  on  the  theory 
of  issuing  treasury  notes  convertible  at  the  pleasure  of  the  holder 
into  eight  per  cent,  bonds,  the  interest  of  which  wa$  to  be  payable  in 
coin,  and  it  was  correctly  assumed  that  any  tendency  to  depreciation 
that  might  arise  from  over  issue  of  the  currency  woul  1  be  checked  by 
the  constant  exercise  of  the  holder's  right  to  fund  the  notes  at  a  liberal 
interest  payable  in  specie.  This  system  depended  for  success  on  the 
continued  ability  of  government  to  pay  the  interest  in  specie,  and 
means  were,  therefore,  provided  for  that  purpose  in  the  law  authoris- 
ing the  issues.  An  internal  tax  termed  a  war  tax  was  levied,  the 
proceeds  of  which,  together  with  the  revenue  from  imports  were 
deemed  sufficient  Cor  the  object  designed.  This  scheme  required  for 
its  operation  that  our  commerce  with  foreign  nations  should  not  be 
suspended.  It  was  not  to  be  anticipated  that  such  Buspensi  m  would 
be  permitted  otherwise  than  by  an  effective  blockade;  and  it  was 
absurd  to  suppose  that  a  blockade  "  sufficient  really  to  prevent  access  " 
to  our  entire  coast  could  be  maintained. 

We  had  the  means,  therefore,  (if  neutral  nations  had  not  combined 
to  aid  our  enemies  by  the  sanction  of  an  illegal  prohibition  on  their 
commerce,)  to  secure  the  receipt  into  the  Treasury  of  coin  sufficient  to 
pay  the  interest  on  the  bonds,  and  thus  maintain  the  treasury  notes  at 
rates  nearly  equal  to  par  in  specie.  80  long  as  the  interest  continued 
to  be  thus  paid  with  the  reserve  of  coin  pre-existing  in  on-  country, 
experience  sustained  the  expectations  of  those  who  devised  the  system. 
Thus,  on  the  first  of  the  following  December,  coin  had  only  reached 
a  premium  of  about  twenty  per  cent,  although  it  had  already  become 
apparent  that  the  commerce  of  the  country  was  threatened  with  per- 
manent suspension  by  reason  of  the  conduct  of  neutral  nations,  and 
that  the  necessary  result  must  be  the  exhaustion  of  our  specie  reserve. 
Wheat,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1862,  was  selling  at  one  dollar  and 
thirty  cents  per  bushel,  not  exceeding,  therefore,  its  average  price  in 
time  of  peace.  The  other  agricultural  products  of  the  country  were 
at  similar  moderate  rates,  thus  indicating  that  there  was  no  excess  of 
circulation,  and  that  the  rate  of  premium  on  specie  was  heightened  by 
the  exceptional  causes  which  tended  to  its  exhaustion  without  the 
possibility  of  renewing  the  supply. 

This  review  of  the  policy  of  your  predecessors  is  gi-en  in  justice 
to  them,  and  it  exhibits  the  condition  of  the  finances  at  the  date  when 
the  permanent  government  was  organized. 

In  the  meantime  the  popular  aversion  to  internal  taxation  by  the 


15 

general  government  had  influenced  the  legislation  of  the  several  States, 
and  in  only  three  of  them,  South  Carolina,  Mississippi  and  Texas, 
were  the  taxes  actually  collected  from  the  people.  The  quotas  de- 
volving upon  the  remaining  States  had  been  raised  by  the  issue  of 
bonds  and  State  treasury  notes,  and  the  public  debt  of  the  country 
was  thus  actally  increased  instead  of  being  diminished  by  the  taxation 
imposed  by  Congress.     - 

Neither  at  the  first  nor  second  session  of  the  present  Congress  were 
means  provided  by  taxation  for  maintaining  the  government,  the  legis- 
lation being  confined  to  authorising  further  sales  of  bonds  and  issues 
of  treasury  notes.  Although  repeated  efforts  were  made  to  frame  a 
proper  system  of  taxation,  you  were  confronted  with  an  obstacle  which 
did  not  exist  for  your  predecessors,  and  which  created  grave  embar- 
rassment in  devising  any  scheme  of  taxation.  About  two-thirds  of 
the  entire  taxable  property  of  the  Confederate  States  consist  of  lands 
and  slaves.  The  general  power  pf  taxation  vested  in  Congress  by  the 
provisional  Constitution,  (which  was  to  be  only  temporary  in  its  opera- 
tion,) wis  not  restricted  by  any  other  condition  than  that  "  all  duties, 
imposts  and  excises  should  be  uniform  throughout  the  States  of  the 
Confederacy."  But  the  permanent  Constitution  sanctioning  the  prin- 
ciple that  taxation  and  representation  ought  to  rest  on  the  same  basis, 
specially  provides  that  "  representative  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  ap- 
portioned among  the  several  States  according  to  their  respective  num- 
bers which  shall  be  determined  by  adding  to  the  whole  number  of  free 
persons,  including  those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and  ex- 
cluding Indians  not  taxed,  three  fifths  of  all  slaves.'' 

It  was  further  ordered  that  a  census  shoul  I  be  made  within  three 
years  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  Congress,  and  that  "no  capitation 
or  other  direct  tax  shall  be  laid,  unless  in  proportion  to  the  census  or 
enumeration  hereinbefore  directed  to  be  taken." 

It  is  plain  that  under  these  provisions,  capitation  and  direct  taxes 
must  be  levied  in  proportion  to  the  census  when  made.  It  is  also 
plain  that  the  duty  is  imposed  on  Congress  to  provide  for  making  a 
census  prior  to  the  22d  February,  ISCo.  It  may  further  he  stated 
that,  according  to  the  received  construction  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  (a  construction  acquiesced  in  for  upwards  of  sixty 
years,)  taxes  on  lands  and  slaves  are  direct  taxes,  and  the  conclusion 
seems  necessarily  to  be  that,  in  repeating,  without  modification,  in 
our  Constitution,  this  language  of  the  Constitution  of  1787,  our  con- 
vention intended  to  attach  to  it  the  meaning  which  h.:d  been  sanc- 
tioned by  long  and  uninterrupted  acquiescence. 

So  long  as  there  seemed  to  be  a  probability  of  being  able  to  carry 
out  these  provisions  of  the  Constitution  in  their  entirety,  and  in  con- 
formity with  the  intentions  of  its  authors,  there  wTas  an  obvious  diffi- 
culty in  framing  any  system  of  taxation.  A  law  which  should  ex- 
empt from  the  burthen  two-thirds  of  the  property  of  the  country, 
would  be  as  unfair  to  the  owners  of  the  remaining  third,  as  it  wouli 
be  inadequate  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  public  service. 

The  urgency  of  the  need  ^as  such,  however,  that,  after  very  grea: 


16 

embarrassment,  and  more  than  three  months  of  assiduous  labor,  you 
succeeded  in  framing  the  law  of  the  24th  April,  1863,  by  which  you 
sought  to  reach  so  far  as  was  practicable,  every  resource  of  the  coun- 
try except  the  capital  invested  in  real  estate  and  slaves,  and  by  means 
of  an  income  tax  and  a  tax  in  kind  on  the  produce  of  the  soil,  as  well 
a3  by  licenses  on  business  occupations  and  professions,  to  command 
resources  sufficient  for  the  wants  of  the  country.  But  a  very  large 
proportion  of  these  resources  could  only  be  made  available  at  the 
close  of  the  present  and  the  commencement  of  the  ensuing  year, 
while  the  intervening  exigencies  permitted  no  delay.  In  this  state  of 
affairs',  superinduced  almost  unavoidably  by  the  fortunes  of  the  war 
in  which  we  are  engaged,  the  issues  of  treasury  notes  have  been  in- 
creased until  the  currency  in  circulation  amounts  to  more  than  six 
hundred  millions  of  dollars,  or  more  than  three- fold  the  amount  re- 
quired by  the  business  of  the  country. 

I  need  not  enlarge  upon  the  evil  effects  of  this  condition  of  things. 
They  are  unfortunately  but  too  apparent.  In  addition  to  the  dif- 
ficulty presented  to  the  necessary  operations  of  the  government,  and 
the  efficient  conduct  of  the  war,  the  most  deplorable  of  all  its  results 
is  undoubtedly  its  corrupting  influence  on  the  morals  of  the  people. 
The  possession  of  large  amounts  of  treasury  notes  has  naturally  led 
to  a  desire  for  investment,  and  with  a  constantly  increasing  volume  of 
currency,  there  has  been  an  equally  constant  increase  of  price  in  all 
objects  of  investment.  This  effect  has  stimulated  purchase  by  the 
apparent  certainty  of  profit,  and  a  spirit  of  speculation  has  thus  been 
fostered,  which  has  so  debasing  an  influence,  and  such  ruinous  con- 
sequences, that  it  is  our  highest  duty  to  remove  the  cause,  and  no 
measures  directed  to  that  end,  can  be  too  prompt,  or  too  stringent. 

Reverting  to  the  Constitutional  provisions  already  cited,  the  ques- 
tion recurs  whether  it  be  possible  to  execute  the  duty  of  apportioning 
taxation  in  accordance  with  the  census  ordered  to  be  made  as  a  basis. 
So"  long  as  this  appeared  to  be  practicable,  none  can  deny  the  proprie- 
ty of  your  course  in  abstaining  from  the  imposition  of  direct  taxes 
till  you  could  exercise  the  power  in  the  precise  mode  pointed  out  by 
the  terms  of  the  fundamental  law.  But  it  is  obvious  that  there  are 
many  duties  imposed  by  the  Constitution,  which  depend  for  their 
fulfilment  on  the  undisturbed  possession  of  the  territory  within  which 
they  are  to  be  performed.  The  same  instrument  which  orders  a  cen- 
sus to  be  made  in  all  the  States,  imposes  the  duty  on  the  Confederacy 
"  to  guarantee  to  every  State  a  republican  form  of  government."  It 
enjoins  on  us  "to  protect  each  State  from  invasion,"  arid  while 
declaring  that  its  great  objects  and  purposes  are  "to  establish  jus- 
tice, ensure  domestic  tranquility  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty 
to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,"  it  confers  the  means  and  thereby 
imposes  on  us  the  paramount  duty  of  effecting  its  intent,  by  •'  laying 
and  collecting  taxes,  duties,  imposts  and  excises,  necessary  to  pay 
the  debt3,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  and  carry  on  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Confederate  States." 

None  would  pretend  that  the  Constitution   is   violated  because,  by 


17 

reason  of  the  presence  of  hostile  armies,  we  are  unable  to  guarantee  a 
republican  form  of  government  to  those  States  or  portion*  of  State! 
now  temporarily  held  by  the  enemy,  And  as  little  justice  would  there 
be  in  imputing  blame  for  the  failure  to  make  the  census,  when  that 
failure  is  attributable  to  causes  not  foreseen  by  the  authors  of  the  con- 
stitution, and  beyond  our  control.  The  general  intent  of  our  consti- 
tutional charter  is  unquestionably  that  the  property  of  the  country  is 
to  be  taxed  in  order  to  raise  revenue  for  the  common  defence,  and  the 
special  mode  provided  for  levying  this  tax  is  impracticable  from  nnfore- 
seen  causes.  It  is,  in  my  judgment,  our  primary  duty  to  execute  the 
general  intent  expressed  by  the  terms  of  the  instrument  which  wc  haVfj 
sworn  to  obey,  and  we  cannot  excuse  ourselves  for  the  failure  to  ful  ;11 
this  obligation  on  the  ground  that  we  are  unable  to  perform  it  in  the 
precise  mode  pointed  out.  Whenever  it  shall  be  possible  to  execute 
our  duty  in  all  its  parts,  we  must  do  so  in  exact  compliance  with  the 
whole  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution  Until  that  period  shall 
arrive,  we  must  execute  !*o  much  of  it,  as  our  condition  renders  prac- 
ticable. Whenever  the  withdrawal  of  the  enemy  shall  pluco  it  in  our 
power  to  make  a  census  and  apportionment  of  direct  taxes,  any  other 
mode  of  levying  them,  will  he  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  law  giver, 
and  incompatible  with  our  obligation  to  obey  that  will;  until  that 
period,  the  alternative  left  is  to  obey  the  paramount  precept,  and  to 
execute  it  according  to  the  only  other  rule  provided,  which  is  to 
'•  make  the  tax  uniform  throughout  the  Confederate  St  ites." 

The  considerations  just  presented  are  greatly  enforced  by  the 
reflection  that  any  attempt  10  apportion  taxes  amongst  States,  some  of 
which  are  wholly  or  partially  in  the  occupation  of  hostile  forces,  would 
subvert  the  whole  intention  of  the  framersof  the  Constitution,  and  be 
productive  of  the  most  revolting  injustice,  instead  of  that  just  corre- 
lation between  taxation  and  representation  which  it  whs  their  purpose 
Id  secure.  Wilh  large  portions  of  some  of  the  States  occupied  by  the 
enemy,  what  justice  would  there  be  in  imposing  on  the  remainder thi 
whole  amount  of  the  taxation  of  the  entire  State  in  proportion  to  its 
representation  ?  What  else  would  this  be  in  effect  than  to  increase 
the  burthen  of  those  who  are  the  heaviest  sufferers  by  the  war,  and  to 
make  our  own  inability  to  pr  otect  them  from  invasion,  as  we  are  required! 
to  do  by  th'e  Constitution,  the  ground  for  adding  to  their  losses  by  an 
attempted  adherence  to  the  letter,  in  violation  of  the  spirit  of  that 
instrument  ?  No  such  purpose  could  have  been  entertained,  and  no 
Buch  result  contemplated  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  It  may 
add  weight  to  these  on«iderations  if  we  reflect,  that  although  the  Con- 
stitution provided  that  it  should  go  into  operation  with  a  representa- 
tion temporarily  distributed  among  the  States,  it  expressly  ordains, 
after  providing  for  a  census  within  three  years,  that  this  temporary 
distribution  of  representative  power  is  to  endure  •*  until  such  enumer- 
ation shall  be  made  "  Would  any  one  argue  that,  because  the  census 
cannot  be  made  within  the  fixed  period,  the  government  must,  at  the 
expiration  of  that  period,  perish  for  want  of  a  representative  body  ? 
In  any  aspect  in  which  the  subject  can  be  viewed,  lam  led  to  the  con- 


18 

elusion  already  announced,  and  which  is  understood  to  be  in  accordance 
with  a  vote  taken  in  one  or  both  Houses  at  your  last  session.  I  shall, 
therefore,  until  we  are  able  to  pursue  the  precise  mode  required  by  the 
Constitution,  deem  it  my  duty  to  approve  any  law  levying  the  taxa- 
tion which  you  are  bound  to  impose  for  the  defence  of  the  country,  in 
any  other  practicable  mode  which  shall  distribute  the  burthen  uni- 
formly and  impartially  on  the  whole  property  of  the  people. 

In  your  former  legislation  you  have  sought  to  avoid  the  increase 
in  the  volume  of  notes  in  circulation,  by  offering  inducements  to 
voluntary  funding.  The  measures  adopted  for  that  purpose  have  been 
but  partially  successful,  and  the  evil  has  now  reached  such  a  magni- 
tude as  to  permit  no  other  remedy  than  the  compulsory  reduction  of 
the  currency  to  the  amount  required  by  the  business  of  the  country. 
Thi3  reduction  should  be  accompanied  by  a  pledge  that  under  no  stress 
of  circumstances  will  that  amount  be  exceeded.  No  possible  mode  of 
using  the  credit  of  the  government  can  be  so  disastrous  as  one  which 
disturbs  the  basis  of  all  exchanges,  renders  impossible  all  calculations 
o  future  values,  augments,  in  constantly  increasing  proportions,  the 
price  of  all  commodities,  and  so  depreciates  all  fixed  wages,  salaries, 
and  incomes,  as  to  render  them  inadequate  to  bare  subsistence.  If  to 
these  be  added  the  still  more  fatal  influence  on  the  morals  and  char- 
acter of  the  people,  to  ^hich  I  have  already  adverted,  I  am  persuaded 
you  will  concur  in  the  conclusion  that  an  inflexible  adherence  to  a 
limitation  of  the  currency  at  a  fixed  sum  is  an  indispensable  element 
of  any  system  of  finance  now  to  be  adopted. 

The  holders  of  the  currency  now  outstanding  can  only  be  protected 
in  the  recovery  of  their  just  claims  by  substituting  for  their  notes 
some  other  security.  If  the  currency  is  not  greatly  and  promptly 
reduced,  the  present  scale  of  inflated  prices  will  not  only  continue  to* 
exist,  but  by  the  very  fact  of  the  large  amounts  thus  made  requisite  in 
the  conduct  of  the  war,  those  prices  will  reach  rates  still  more  extrav- 
agant, and  the  whole  system  will  fall  under  its  own  weight,  thus  ren- 
dering the  redemption  of  the  debt  impossible,  and  destroying  its  whole 
value  in  the  hands  of  the  holder.  If,  on  the  contrary,  a  funded  debt, 
with  interest  secured  by  adequate  taxation  can  be  substituted  for  the 
outstanding  currency,  its  entire  amount  will  be  made  available  to  the 
holder,  and  the  government  will  be  in  a  condition  enabling  it,  beyond 
the  rea  h  of  any  probable  contingency,  to  prosecute  the  war  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue.  It  is,  therefore,  demanded,  as  well  by  the  interest  of 
the  creditor  as  of  the  country  at  large,  that  the  evidences  of  the  public 
debt  now  outstanding  in  the- shape  of  treasury  notes,  be  converted  into 
bonds  bearing  adequate  interest,  with  a  provision  for  taxation  suffi- 
cient to  ensure  punctual  payment,  and  final  redemption  of  the  whole 
debt. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  presents  the  outlines 
of  asystem  which,  in  conjunction  with  existing  legislation,  is  intended 
to  secure  the  several  objects  of  a  reduction  of  the  circulation  within 
fixed,  reasonable  limits  ;  of  providing  for  the  future  wants  of  the  gov- 
ernment; of  furnishing  security  for  the  punctual  payment  of  interest 


19 

&nd  final  extinction  of  the  principal  of  the  public  debt ;  and  of  placing 
the  whole  business  of  the  country  on  a  basis  as  near  a  specie  standard 
as  is  possible  during  the  continuance  of  the  war.  I  earnestly  recom- 
mend it  to  your  consideration,  and  that  no  delay  be  permitted  to 
intervene  before  your  action  on  this  vital  subject.  I  trust  that  it  will 
be  suffered  to  engross  your  attention  until  you  shall  have  disposed  of 
it  in  the  manner  best  adapted  to  attain  the  important  results  which 
your  country  anticipates  from  your  legislation. 

It  may  be  added  that,  in  considering  this  subject,  the  people  ought 
steadily  to  keep  in  view  that  the  government,  in  contracting  debt,  is 
but  their  agent;  that  its  debt  is  their  debt.  As  the  currency  is  held 
exclusively  by  ourselves,  it  is  obvious  that,  if  each  person  held  treasury 
notes  in  exact  proportion  to  the  value  of  his  whole  means,  each  would 
in  fact  owe  himself  the  amount  of  the  notes  held  by  him,  and,  were  it 
possible  to  distribute  the  currency  among  the  people  in  this  exact 
proportion,  a  tax  levied  on  the  currency  alone,  to  an  amount  sufficient 
to  reduce  it  to  proper  limits,  would  afford  the  best  of  all  remedies. 
Under  such  circumstances,  the  notes  remaining  in  the  hands  of  each 
holder,  after  the  payment  of  his  tax,  would  be  worth  quite  as  much  as 
the  whole  sum  previously  held,  for  it  would  purchase  at  least  an  equal 
amount  of  commodities.  This  result  cannot  be  perfectly  attained  by 
any  device  of  legislation,  but  it  can  be  approximated  by  taxation.  A 
tax  on  all  values  has  for  its  effect,  not  only  to  impose  a  due  share  of  the 
burthen  on  the  note  holder,  but  to  force  those  who  have  few  or  none 
of  the  notes,  to  part  with  a  share  of  their  possessions  to  those  who 
hold  the  notes  in  excess,  in  order  to  obtain  the  means  of  satisfying  the 
demands  of  the  tax  gatherer.  This  is  the  only  mode  by  which  it  is 
practicable  to  make  all  contribute  as  equally  as  possible  in  the  burthen 
which  all  are  bound  to  share,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  taxation 
adequate  to  the  public  exigencies,  under  our  present  circumstances, 
must  be  the  basis  of  any  funding  system  or  other  remedy  for  restoring 
stability  to  our  finances. 

THE  ARMY. 

To  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  you  are  referred  for  details 
relative  to  the  condition  of  the  army,  and  the  measures  of  legislation 
required  for  maintaining  its  efficiency,  recru  ting  its  numbers,  and 
furnishing  the  supplies  necessary  for  its  support. 

Though  we  have  lost  many  of  the  best  of  our  soldiers  and  most  pa- 
triotic of  our  citizens,  (the  sad  but  unavoidable  result  of  the  battles 
and  toils  of  such  a  campaign  as  that  which  will  render  the  year  1863 
ever  memorable  in  our  annals,)  the  army  is  believed  to  be  in  all  re- 
spects in  better  condition  than  at  any  previous  period  of  the  war. 
Our  gallant  defenders,  now  veterans,  familiar  with  danger,  hardened 
by  exposure,  and  confident  in  themselves  and  their  officers,  endure 
privations  with  cheerful  fortitude  and  welcome  battle  with  alacrity. 
The  officers,  by  experience  in  field  service  and  the  action  of  examin- 
ing boards  in  relieving  the  incompetent,  are  now  greatly  more  efficient 


20 

than  at  the  commencement  of  tho  war.  The  assertion  is  believed  to 
be  fully  justified,  that,  regarded  as  a  whole,  for  character,  valor, 
efficiency,  and  patriotic  devotion,  our  army  has  not  been  equalled  by 
any  like  number  of"  troops  in  the  history  of  war. 

i  In  view  of  the  large  conscription  recently  ordered  by  the  enemy, 
and  their  subsequent  call  for  volunteers  to  be  followed,  if  ineffectual, 
by  a  still  further  draft,  we  are  admonished  that  no  effort  must  be 
spared  to  add  largely  to  our  effective  force  as  promptly  as  possible. 
The  sources  of  supply  are  to  be  found  by  restoring  to  the  army  all 
who  are  improperly  absent,  putting  an  end  to  substitution,  modifying 
the  exemption  law.  restricting  details,  and  placing  in  the  ranks  such 
of  the  able-bodied  men  now  employed  as  wagoners,  nurses,  cooks,  and 
other  employees,  as  are  doing  service  for  which  the  negroes  may  bo 
found  competent. 

The  act  of  1 6th  April,  1862,  provides  "  that  persons  not  liable  for 
duty  may  be  received  as  substitutes  for  those  who  are,  under  such 
regulations  as  may  be  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of  War."'  Tho 
policy  of  granting  this  privilege  has  not  been  sustained  by  experience. 
Not  only  has  the  numerical  strength  of  the  army  been  seriously  im- 
paired by  the  frequent  desertions  for  which  substitutes  have  become 
notorious,  but  dissatisfaction  has  been  excited  among  those  who  have 
been  unable  or  unwilling  to  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  thus 
afforded  of  avoiding  the  military  service  of  their  country. 

I  fully  concur  in  the  opinion  expressed  by  the  Secretary,  that  there 
is  no  ground  for  the  objection  that  a  new  provision,  to  include  those 
who  furnished  substitutes  under  the  former  call,  would  be  a  breach  of 
contract.  To  accept  a  substitute  was  to  confer  a  privilege,  not  to 
enter  into  a  contract,  and  whenever  the  substitute  is  rendered  liable 
Jo  conscription.it  would  seem  to  follow  that  the  principal,  whose  place 
ibe  had  taken,  should  respond  for  him,  as  the  government  had  received 
do  consideration  for  his  exemption.  Where,  however,  the  new  pro- 
vision of  law  would  fail  to  embrace  a  substitute  now  in  the  ranks, 
there  appears,  if  the  principal  should  again  be  conscrihed,  to  be  an 
equitable  ground  for  compensation  to  the  conscript,  who  then  would 
have  added  to  the  service  a  soldier  not  otherwise  liable  to  enrolment. 

On  the  subject  of  exemptions,  it  is  believed  that  abuses  cannot  be 
checked  unless  the  system  is  placed  on  a  basis  en'irely  different  from 
that  now  provided  by  law.  The  object  of  your  legislation  has  been, 
mot  to  confer  privileges  on  classes,  but  to  exonerate  from  military 
duty  such  number  of  persons  skilled  in  the  various  trades,  professions, 
and  mechanical  pursuits,  as  could  render  more  valuable  service  to 
their  country  by  laboring  in  their  present  occupation  than  by  going 
into  the  ranks  of  the  army.  The  policy  is  unquestionable,  but  the 
yesult  would,  it  is  thought,  be  better  obtained  by  enrolling  all  such 
persons,  and  allowing  details  to  be  made  of  the  number  necessary  to 
meet  the  wants  of  the  country.  Considerable  numbers  are  believed  to 
be  now  exempted  from  the  military  service  who  are  not  needful  to  the 
public  in  their  civil  vocation. 

Certain  duties  are  now  performed  throughout  the  country  by  details 


n 

from  the  array,  which  could  be  as  well  executed  by  persons  above  the 
present  c  mscnpt  age.  An  extension  of  the  limit,  so  as  to  embrace 
persons  over  forty-five  years,  and  physically  fit,  for  service  in  guarding 
posts,  railroads  and  bridges,  in  apprehending  deserters,  ;iml,  where 
practicable,  assuming  the  place  of  younger  men  detailed  for  duty  with 
the  nitre,  ordnance,  commissary  and  quartermasters  bureaus  of  the  war 
department,  would,  it  is  hoped,  add  largely  to  the  effective  force  in 
the  field,  without  an  undue  burthen  on  the  population 

If  to  the  above  measures  be  added  a  law  to  enlarge  the  policy  of  the 
act  of  the  21st  Ap«il  lbG2,  so  as  to  enable  the  department  to  replace 
not  only  enlisted  cooks,  but  wagoners,  and  other  employees  in  the 
army,  by  negroes,  it  is  hoped  that  the  ranks  of  the  army  will  be  so 
strengthened,  for  the  ensuing  campaign,  as  to  put  at  defiance  the 
utmost  efforts  of  the  enemy 

In  order  to  maintain,  unimpaired,  the  existing  organization  of  the 
army  until  the  close  of  the  war,  your  legislation  contemplate  I  a  frequent 
mpply  of  recruits,  and  it  was  expected  that  before  the  expiration  of 
the  three  years  for  which  the  men  were  enrolled  under  act  of  iGth  April, 
1S62.  the  majority  of  men  in  each  company  would  consist  of  those 
who  joined  it  at  different  dates  subsequent  to  the  original  muster  of  the 
company  into  service,  and  that  the  discharge  of  those  who  had  com- 
pleted their  term  would  at  no  time  be  sufficient  to  leave  the  company 
with  a  less  number  than  is  required  to  enable  it  to  retain  its  organiza- 
tion. The  difficulty  of  obtaining  recruits  from  certain  localities,  and 
the  large  number  of  exemptions  from  military  service  granted  by 
different  laws,  have  prevented  sufficient  accessions  in  many  of  the  com- 
panies to  preserve  their  organizations  after  the  discharge  of  the  original 
members  The  advantage  of  retaining  tried  ami  well  approved  officers 
and  of  mingling  recruits  with  experienced  soldiers,  is  so  obvious  and 
the  policy  of  such  a  course  is  so  clearly  indicated  that  it  Unot  deemed 
necessary  to  point  out  the  ev  1  conscqu  -nces  which  would  result  from 
the  destruction  of  the  old  organizations,  or  to  dwell  upon  the  benefits 
to  be  secured  from  filling  up  the  veteran  companies  as  long  before  the 
discharge  of  the  earlier  members  as  may  be  possible.  In  the  cases 
where  it  may  be  found  impracticable  to  maintain  regiment*  in  sufficient 
strength  to  justify  the  retention  of  the  present  organization,  economy 
and  efficiency  would  be  promoted  by  consolidation  aril  re-org^niza,- 
tion.  This  would  involve  the  necessity  of  disbanding  a.  part  of  the 
officers,  and  making  regulations  for  securing  the  most  judicious  selec- 
tion of  tho-e  who  are  retained,  while  least  wounding  the  feelings  of 
those  who  are  di -charged. 

Experience  has  shown  the  necessity  for  further  legislation  in  rela- 
tion to  the  horses  of  the  cavalry.  Many  men  lose  their  horses  by 
casualties  of  service  which  are  not  included  in  the  provisions  made  to 
compensate  the  owner  for  the  loss,  and  it  may  thus  not  unfrequently 
happen  that  the  most  efficient  troopers  without  fault  of  their  own, 
indeed,  it  may  be  because  of  their  zeal  and  activity,  are  lost  to  the  cav- 
alry service. 

It  would  also  seem  proper  that  the  government  should  have  com- 


22 

plete  control  over  every  horse  mustered  into  service,  with  the  limita- 
tion that  the  owner  should  not  be  deprived  of  his  horse  except  upon 
due  compensation  being  made  therefor.  Otherwise,  mounted  men  may 
not  keep  horses  fit  for  the  service;  and  the  question  whether  they 
should  ^erve  mounted  or  on  foot  would  depend,  not  upon  the  qualifica- 
tions of  the  men,  but  upon  the  fact  of  their  having  horses. 

Some  provision  is  deemed  requisite  to  correct  the  evils  arising  from 
the  long  continued  absence  of  commissioned  officers  Where  it  is 
without  sufficient  cause,  it  w:ould  seem  but  just  that  the  commis- 
sion should  be  thereby  vacated.  Where  it  results  from  capture 
by  the  enemy,  which,  under  their  barbarous  refusal  to  exchange  pris- 
oners of  war,  may  be  regarded  as  absence  for  an  indefinite  time,  there 
is  a  necessity  to  supply  their  places  in  their  respective  commands. 
This  might  be  done  by  temporary  appointments  to  endure  only  until 
the  return  of  the  officers  regularly  commissioned.  Where  it  results 
from  permanent  disability  incurred  in  the  line  of  their  duty,  it  would 
be  proper  to  retire  them  and  fill  the  vacancies  according  to  established 
mode.  I  would  also  suggest  the  organization  of  an  invalid  corps,  and 
that  the  retired  officers  be  transferred  to  it.  Such  a  corps,  it  is 
thought,  could  be  made  useful  in  various  employments,  for  wrhich  effi- 
cient officers  and  troops  are  now  detached. 

An  organization  of  the  general  staff  of  the  army  would  be  highly 
conducive  to  the  efficiency  of  that  most  important  branch  of  the  ser- 
vice. The  plan  adopted  for  the  military  establishment  furnishes  a 
model  for  the  staff  of  the  provisional  army  if  it  be  deemed  advisable 
to  retain  the  distinction,  but  I  recommend  to  your  consideration  the 
propriety  of  abolishing  it,  and  providing  for  the  organization  of  the 
several  staff  corps  in  such  number  and  with  such  rank  as  will  meet  all 
the  wants  of  the  service.  To  secure  the  requisite  ability  for  the  more 
important  positions  it  will  be  necessary  to  provide  for  officers  of 
higher  rank  than  is  now  authorized  for  these  corps.  To  give  to  the 
officers  the  proper  relation  and  co-intelligence  in  their  respective 
corps,  and  to  preserve  in  the  chief  of  each  useful  influence  and  control 
over  his  subordinates  there  should  be  no  gradation  on  the  basis  of  the 
rank  of  the  general  with  w7hom  they  might  be  serving  by  appointment.. 
To  the  personal  staff  of  a  general  it  would  seem  proper  to  give  a  grade 
corresponding  with  his  rank,  and  the  number  might  be  fixed  to  corres- 
pond with  his  command.  To  avoid  the  consequence  of  discharge  upon  a 
change  of  duty,  the  variable  portion  of  the  personal  staff  might  be 
taken  from  the  line  of  the  army  and  allowed  to  retain  their  line  com- 
missions. 

The  disordered  condition  of  the  currency  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  has  imposed  on  the  Government  a  system  of  supplying  the 
wants  of  the  army,  which  is  so  unequal  in  its  operation,  vexatious  to 
the  producer,  injurious  to  the  industrial  interest,  and  productive  of 
such  discontent  among  the  people  as  only  to  be  justified  by  the  exist- 
ence of  an  absolute  necessity.  The  report  of  the  Secretary  on  this 
point,  establishes  conclusively,  that  the  necessity  which  has  forced 
the  bureaux  of  supply,  to  provide  for  the  army  by  impressment,  has 


23 

resulted  from  the  impossibility  of  purchase  by  contract  or  in  the 
open  market,  except  at  such  rapidly  increased  rates  as  would  have 
rendered  the  appropriations  inadequate  to  tbe  wants  of  the  army. 
Indeed,  it  is  believed  that  the  temptation  to  hoard  supplies  for  the 
higher  prices  which  could  be  anticipated  with  certainty,  has  been 
checked  mainly  by  the  fear  of  the  operation  of  the  impressment  law  ; 
and  that  commodities  have  been  offered  in  the  markets,  principally  to 
escape  impressment,  and  obtain  higher  rates  than  those  fixed  by 
appraisement.  The  complaints  against  this  vicious  system  have  been 
well  founded,  but  the  true  cause  of  the  evil  has  been  misapprehended. 
The  remedy  is  to  be  found,  not  in  a  change  of  the  impressment  law, 
but  in  the  restoration  of  the  currency  to  such  a  basis,  as  will  enable 
the  department  to  purchase  necessary  supplies  in  the  open  market, 
and  thus  render  impressment  a  rare  and  exceptional  process. 

The  same  remedy  will  effect  the  result  universally  desired,  of  an 
augmentation  of  the  pay  of  the  army.  The  proposals  made  at  your 
previous  sessions,  to  increase  the  pay  of  the  soldier  by  an  additional 
amount  of  Treasury  notes,  would  have  conferred  little  benefit  on  him, 
but  a  radical  reform  of  the  currency  will  restore  the  pay  to  a  value 
approximating  that  which  it  originally  had,  and  materially  improve  his 
condition. 

The  reports  from  the  ordnance  and  mining  bureaux  are  very  grati- 
fying, and  the  extension  of  our  means  of  supply  of  arms  and  muni- 
tions of  war  from  our  home  resources,  has  been  such  as  to  ensure  our 
ability  soon  to  become  mainly,  if  not  entirely  independent  of  supplies 
from  foreign  countries.  The  establishments  for  the  casting  of  guns 
and  projectiles,  for  the  manufacture  of  small  arms  and  of  gunpowder, 
for  the  supply  of  nitre  from  artificial  nitre  beds,  and  mining  opera- 
tions generally,  have  been  so  distributed  through  the  country,  as  to 
place  our  resources  beyond  the  reach  of  partial  disasters. 

The  recommendations  of  the  Secretary  of  War  on  other  points,  are 
minutely  detailed  in  his  report,  which  is  submitted  to  you,  and  extend- 
ing, as  they  do,  to  almost  every  branch  of  the  service,  merit  careful 
consideration. 

EXCHANGE  OK  PRISONERS. 

I  regret  to  inform  you  that  the  enemy  have  returned  to  the  barbar 
ous  policy  with  which  they  inaugurated  the  war,  and  that  the  exchange 
of  prisoners  has  been  for  some  time  suspended.  The  correspondence 
of  the  Commissioners  of  Exchange  is  submitted  to  you  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  War,  and  it  has  already  been  published  for  the  information  of 
all  now  suffering  useless  imprisonment.  The  conduct  of  the  author- 
ities of  the  United  States  has  b(en  consistently  perfidious  on  this  sub- 
ject. An  agreement  for  exchange  in  the  incipiency  of  the  war  had 
just  been  concluded  when  the  fall  of  Fort  Donelson  reversed  the  pre- 
vious state  of  things,  and  gave  them  an  excess  of  prisoners.  Th'1 
agreement  was  immediately  repudiated  by  them,  and  so  remained  :ll 
the  fortune  of  war  again  placed  us  in  possession  of  the  larger  num- 


24 

be;*.  A  new  cartel  was  then  irnde.  and  under  it,  for  many  months, 
ve  restored  to  them  many  thousands  of  prisoners  in  excess  of  those 
I  i  they  held  fur  exchange,  and  encampments  of  the  surplus  pa- 
rol. 1  prisoners  delivered  up  hy  us,  were  established  in  the  United 
I  .  \  here  the  men  were  able  to  receive  the  comforts  and  solace  of 

'  int  communication  with  their  homes  and  families.  In  July  last 
tl:  *  fortune  of  war  again  favored  the  enemy,  and  they  were  enabled  to 
nge  for  duty  the  men  previously  delivered  to  them,  against  those 
Captured  and  paroled  at  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson.  The  prisoners 
I  at   Gettysburg,  however,  remained    in   their    hands,  and  should 

1  I  een  at  once  returned  to  our  lines  on  parole,  to  await  exchange. 
I  id  of  executing  a  duty  imposed  by  the  plainest  dictates  of  jus- 
tice and  good  faith,  pretexts  were  instantly  sought  for  holding  them 
rmanent  captivity.  General  orders  rapidly  succeeded  each  other 
from  the  bureaux  at  Washington,  placing  new  constructions  on  an 
agt  nt  which  had  given  rise  to  no  dispute   while  we  retained  the 

advantage  in  the  number  of  prisoners.  With  a  disregard  of  honorable 
Obligations,  almost  unexampled,  the  enemy  did  not  hesitate,  in  addi- 
tion to  retaining  the  prisoners  captured  by  them,  to  declare  null  the 
I  des  given  by  the  prisoners  captured  by  us  in  the  same  series  of 
c  cements,  and  liberated  on  condition  of  not  again  serving  until 
exchanged.  They  have  since  openly  insisted  on  treating  the  paroles 
i  by   th-.dr   own    soldiers  as    invalid,  and    those  of  our   soldiers, 

given  under  precisely  similar  circumstances,  as  binding.  A  sucees- 
|iou  of  similar  unjust  pretentions  has  been  set  up  in  a  correspondence 
sly  prolonged,  and  eve^y  device  employed,  to  cover  the  disre- 
g  '  of  an  obligation  which,  between  belligerent  nations,  is  only  to 
I       nforced  by  a  sense  of  honor. 

No  farther  comment  is  needed  on  this  subject,  but  it  may  be  per- 
i  1  to  direct  your  special  attention  to  the  close  of  the  correspond- 

ence submitted  to  you,  from  which  you  will  perceive  that  the  final 
]  >sal  made  by  the  enemy,  in  settlement  of  all  disputes  under  the 
I  I  I.  is.  that  we  should  liberate  all  prisoners  held  by  us,  without  the 
rel    L'se  from  captivity  any  of  those  held  by  them. 

J  the  meantime  a  systematic  and  concerted  effort  has  been  made 
I  juiet  the  complaints  in  the  United  States  of  those  relatives  and 
Is  of  the  prisoners  in  our  hands  who  are  unable  to  understand 
why  the  cartel  is  not  executed  in  their  favor,  by  the  groundless  asser- 
tion that  we  are  the  parlies  who  refuse  compliance.  Attempts  are 
also  made  to  shield  themselves  from  the  execration  excited  by  their 
own  odious  treatment  of  our  officers  and  soldiers  now  captive  in  their 
bands,  by  mis-statements,  such  as  that  the  prisoners  held  by  us  are 
deprived  of  food.  To  this  last  accusation  the  conclusive  answer  has 
I  i    ide,  that,  in  accordance  with  our  law  and  the  general  orders 

of  the  department,  the  rations  of  the  prisoners  are  precisely  the  same, 
in  quantity  and  quality,  as* those  served  out  to  our  own  gallant  soldiers 
in  the  field,  and  which  have  been  found  sufficient  to  support  them  in 
their  arduous  campaign,  while  it  is  not  pretended  by  the  enemy  that 
jhey  treat  prisoners  by  the  same  generous  rule.     By  an  indulgence, 


to 

perhaps  unprecedented,  we  have  even  allowed  the  prisoners  in  our 
hands  to  be  supplied  by  their  friends  at  home  with  comforts  not  en- 
joyed by  the  men  who  captured  them  in  battle.  In  contrast  to  this 
treatment,  the  most  revolting  inhumanity  has  characterized  the  con- 
duct of  the  United  States  towards  prisoners  held  by  them.  One 
prominent  fact,  which  admits  no  denial  nor  palliation,  must  suffice  as 
a  test.  The  officers  of  our  army,  natives  of  southern  and  semi-tropical 
climates,  and  unprepared  for  the  cold  of  a  northern  winter,  have  been 
convened  for  imprisonment,  during  the  rigors  of  the  present  season, 
to  the  most  northern  and  exposed  situation  that  could  be  selected  by 
the  enemy.  There,  beyond  the  reach  of  comforts,  and  often  even  of 
news  from  home  and  family,  exposed  to  the  piercing  cold  of  the 
northern  lakes,  they  are  held  by  men  who  cannot  be  ignorant  of, 
even  if  they  do  not  design,  the  probable  result.  How  many  of  our 
unfortunate  friends  and  comrades,  who  have  passed  unscathed  through 
numerous  battles,  will  perish  on  Johnson's  Island,  under  the  cruel 
t'.-ial  to  which  they  are  subjected,  none  but  the  Omniscient  can  foretell. 
That  they  will  endure  this  barbarous  treatment  with  the  same  stern 
fortitude  "that  they  have  ever  evinced  in  their  country's  service,  we 
cannot  doubt.  But  who  can  be  found  to  believe  the  assertion  that  it 
is  our  refusal  to  execute  the  cartel,  and  not  the  malignity  of  the  foe, 
which  has  caused  the  infliction  of  such  intolerable  cruelty  on  our  own 
loved  and  nonored  defenders  ? 

TRANS -MISSISSIPPI  DEPARTMENT. 

Regular  and  punctual  communication  with  the.  Trans-Mississippi 
is  so  obstructed  as  to  render  difficult  a  complian-ce  with  much  of  the 
legislation  vesting  authority  in  the  executive  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment. To  supply  vacancies  in  office;  to  exercise  discretion  on  certain 
matters  connected  with  the  military  organizations;  to  control  the 
distribution  of  the  funds  collected  from  taxation  or  remitted  from  the 
Treasury;  to  carry  on  the  operations  of  the  Post  Office  Department, 
and  other  like  duties,  require,  under  the  constitution  and  existing 
laws,  the  action  of  the  President  and  heads  of  departments.  The  ne- 
cessities of  the  military  service  frequently  forbid  delay,  and  some 
legislation  is  required,  providing  for  the  exercise  of  temporary  au- 
thority, until  regular  action  can  be  had  at  the  scat  of  government.  I 
would  suggest,  especially  in  the  Post  Office  Department,  that  an 
assistant  be  provided  for  the  states  beyond  the  Mississippi,  with 
authority  in  the  head  of  that  department  to  vest  in  this  assistant  all 
such  powers  now  exercised  by  the  Postmaster  General,  as  may  be 
requisite  for  provisional  control  of  the  funds  of  the  departmtnt  in 
those  States,  and  their  application  to  the  payment  of  mail  contractors; 
for  superintendence  of  the  local  post  offices,  and  the  contracts  for  car- 
rying the  mail;  for  the  temporary  employment  of  proper  persons  to 
fulfil  the  duties  of  postmasters  and  contractors  in  urgent  cas^s.  until 
appointments  can  be  made,  and  for  other  like  purposes.  Without 
some  legislative  provision  on  the  subject,  there  is  serious  risk  of  the 


26 

destruction  of  the  mai'i  service,  by  reason  of  the  delays  and  hardships 
Buffered  by  contractors  under  the  prtscxi:  system,  which  requires  con- 
stant reference  to  Richmond  of  th<  ir  accounts,  as  well  as  of  the  returns 
of  the  local  postmasters,  before  they  can  receive  payment  for  ser- 
vices rendered.  Like  provision  is  also  necessary  in  the  Treasury 
Department;  while,  for  military  affairs,  it  would  seem  to  be  sufficient 
to  authorise  the  President  and  Secretary  of  War  to  delegate  10  the 
commanding  general  so  much  of  the  discretionary  powers  vested  in 
them  by  law,  as  the  exigencies  of  the  service  shall  require. 

NAVY. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  gives  in  detail  the  opera- 
tions of  that  Department  since  January  last,  embracing  information 
of  the  disposition  and  employment  of  the  vessels,  officers  and  men, 
and  the  construction  of  vessels  at  Richmond,  Wilmington.  Charleston, 
Savannah,  Mobile,  Selma,  and  on  the  rivers  Roanoke,  Neuse,  Pedee, 
Chattahoochee  and  Tombigbee ;  the  accumulation  of  ship  timber  and 
supplies,  and  the  manufacture  of  ordnance,  ordnance  stores  and  equip- 
ments. The  foundries  and  workshops  have  been  greatly  improved 
and  their  capacity  to  supply  all  demands  for  heavy  ordnance  for  coast 
and  harbor  defences  is  only  limited  by  our  deficiency  in  the  requisite 
skilled  labor.  The  want  of  such  labor  and  of  seamen  oeriously  af- 
fects the  operations  of  the  Department. 

The  skill,  courage  and  activity  of  our  cruisers  at  sea  cannot  be  too 
highly  commended.  They  ha/e  inflicted  heavy  losses  on  the  enemy, 
without  suffering  a  single  disaster,  and  have  seriously  damaged  the 
shipping  interests  of  the  United  States,  by  compelling  their  foreign 
commerce  to  seek  the  protection  of  neutral  flags. 

Your  attention  is  invited  to  the  suggestions  of  the  report  on  the 
subjects  of  supplying  seamen  for  the  service,  and  of  the  provisions  of 
the  law  in  relation  to  the  volunteer  navy. 

POST  OFFICE. 

The  Postmaster  General  reports  the  receipts  of  that  Department  for 
the  fiscal  year  ending  the  30th  June  last,  to  have  been  $3,337,853.(11, 
and  the  expenditures  for  the  same  period  $2,662,81)4. 67.  The 
statement  thus  exhibits  an  excess  of  receipts  amounting  to  $675,048.44, 
instead  of  a  deficiency  of  more  than  a  million  of  dollars,  as  was  the 
case  in  the  preceding  fiscal  year.  It  is  gratifying  to  perceive  that 
the  Department  has  thus  been  made  self-sustaining  in  accordance 
with  sound  principle,  and  with  the  express  requirement  of  the  Con- 
stitution that  its  expenses  should  be  paid  out  of  its  own  revenues 
after  the  1st  March,  1863. 

The  report  gives  a  full  and  satisfactory  account  of  the  operations 
of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  last  year,  and  explains  the  mea- 
sures adopted  for  giving  more  certainty  and  regularity  to  the  service 
in  the  States  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  on  which  reliance  is  placed 
for  obviating  the  difficulties  heretofore  encountered  in  that  service. 


*     27 

The  settlement  of  the  accounts  of  the  Department  is  greatly  de- 
layed by  reason  of  the  inability  of  the  First  Auditor  to  perform  all 
the  duties  now  imposed  on  him  by  law.  The  accounts  of  the  De- 
partments of  State,  of  the  Treasury,  of  the  Navy,  and  of  Justice, 
are  all  supervised  by  that  officer,  and  more  than  suffice  to  occupy  his 
whole  time.  The  necessity  for  a  Third  Auditor  to  examine  and  settle 
the  accounts  of  a  Department  so  extensive  as  that  of  the  Post  Office 
appears  urgent,  and  his  recommendation  on  that  subject  meets  my 
concurrence. 

CONDUCT  OF  ENEMY. 

I  cannot  close  this  message  without  again  adverting  to  the  savage 
ferocity  which  still  marks  the  conduct  of  the  enemy  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  After  their  repulse  from  the  defences  before  Charleston, 
they  first  sought  revenge  by  an  abortive  attempt  to  destroy  the  city 
with  an  incendiary  composition,  thrown  by  improved  artillery,  from  a 
distance  of  four  miles.  Failing  in  this,  they  changed  their  missiles 
but  fortunately  have  thus  far  succeeded  only  in  killing  two  women  in 
the  city.  Their  commanders,  Butler,  McNeil  and  Turchin,  whose 
horrible  barbarities  have  made  their  names  widely  notorious,  and 
everywhere  execrable,  are  still  honored  and  cherished  by  the  authori- 
ties at  Washington.  The  first  named,  after  having  been  withdrawn 
from  the  scenes  of  his  cruelties  against  women  and  prisoners  of  war, 
(in  reluctant  concession  to  the  demands  of  outraged  humanity  in 
Europe,)  has  just  been  put  in  a  new  command  at  Norfolk,  where  helpless 
women  and  children  are  again  placed  at  his  mercy. 

Nor  has  less  unrelenting  warfare  been  waged  by  these  pretended 
friends  of  human  rights  and  liberties  against  the  unfortunate  negroes. 
Wherever  the  enemy  have  been  able  to  gain  access  they  have  forced 
into  the  ranks  of  their  army  every  able-bodied  man  that  they  could 
seize;  and  have  either  left  the  aged,  the  women  and  the  children  to 
perish  by  starvation,  or  have  gathered  them  into  camps  where  they  have 
been  wasted  by  a  frightful  mortality.  Without  clothing  or  shelter, 
often  without  food,  incapable,  without  supervision,  of  takiDg  the 
most  ordinary  precautions  against  disease,  these  helpless  dependants, 
accustomed  to  have  their  wants  supplied  by  the  foresight  of  their  mas- 
ters, are  being  rapidly  exterminated,  wherever  brought  in  contact  with 
the  invaders.  I»y  the  northern  man,  on  whose  deep-rooted  prejudices 
no  kindly  restraining  influence  is  exercised,  they  are  treated  with 
aversion  and  neglect.  There  is  little  hazard  in  predicting  that,  in  all 
localities  where  the  enemy  have  gained  a  temporary  foothold,  the  ne- 
groes, who  under  our  care  increased  six  fold  in  number  since  their  im- 
portation into  the  colonies  by  Great  Britain,  will  have  been  reduced 
by  mortality  during  the  war  to  not  more  than  one  half  their  previous 
number. 

•  Information  on  this  subject  is  derived  not  only  from  our  own  ob- 
servation and  from  the  reports  of  the  negroes  who  succeed  in  escaping 
from  the  enemy,  but  full  confirmation  is  afforded  by  statements  pub- 


28 


jished  in  the  northern  journals  by  humane  persons  engaged  in  making 
appeals  to  the  charitable  for  aid  in  preventing  the  ravage*  of  disease 
exposure  and  starvation  among  the  negro  women  and  children  who  are 
crowded  in:o  encampments. 

The  frontier  of  our  country  bears  witness  to  the  alacrity  and  effi- 
ciency with  which  the  general  orders  of  the >  enemy  have  been  ex<cuted 
in  the  devastation  of  the  farms,  the  destruction  of  the  agricultural 
implements,  the  burning  of  the  houses,  and  the  plunder  of  everything 
moveable.  Its  whole  aspect  is  a  comment  on  the  ethics  of  the  general 
oi\ler  issued  by  the  United  States  on  the  24th  April,  1863.  com- 
prising ''instructions  for  the  government  of  armies  of  the  United 
States   in   the  field,'"  and  of  which  the  following  is  an  example  : 

"Military  neces^ty  admits  of  all  direct  destruction  of  life  or  limb 
of  aimtd  enemies,  and  of  other  persons  whose  destruction  is  inci- 
dentally unavoidable  in  the  armed  contests  of  the  war:  it  allows  of 
the  capturing  of  every  armed  enem}T  and  of  every  enemy  of  import- 
ance to  the  hostile  government  or  of  peculiar  danger  to  the  captor; 
it  allows  of  all  destruction  of  property  and  obstructions  of  the  ways 
and  channels  of  traffic,  travel  or  communication,  and  of  all  withholding 
of  sustenance  or  means  of  life  from  the  enemy  ;  of  the  appropriation 
of  whatever  an  enemy's  country  affords  necessary  for  the  subsistance 
and  safety  of  the  army  ;  and  of  such  deception  as  does  not  involve 
the  breaking  of  good  faith,  either  positively  pledged  regarding  agree- 
ments entered  into  during  the  war,  or  supposed  l>y  the  modern  law  of 
war  to  exist.  Men  who  t*ke  up  arms  against  one  another  in  public 
war,  do  not  cease  on  this  account  to  be  moral  beings,  responsible  to 
one  another  and  to  God." 

The  striking  contrast  to  these  teachings  and  practices  presented  by 
our  army  when  invading  Pennsylvania  illustrates  the  moral  character 
of  our  people.  Though  their  forbearance  may  have  been  unmerited 
and  unappreciated  by  the  enemy,  ic  was  imposed  by  their  own  self- 
respect  which  forbade  their  degenerating  from  Christian  warriors  into 
plundering  ruffians,  assailing  the  property,  lives  and  honor  of  helpless 
non-combatants.  If  their  conduct,  when  thus  contrasted  with  the  in- 
human practices  of  our  foe,  fail  to  command  the  respect  and  sym- 
pathy of  civilized  nations  in  our  day,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  recognized 
by  their  less  deceived  posterity. 

The  hope  last  year  entertained  of  an  early  termination  of  the  war 
has  not  been  realized.  Could  carnage  have  satisfied  the  appetite  Oi 
our  enemy  for  the  destruction  of  human  life,  or  grief  have  appeased 
their  wanton  desire  to  inflict  human  suffering,  there  has  been  blood- 
shed enough  on  both  sides,  and  two  lands  have  been  sufficiently 
darkened  by  the  weeds  of  mourning  to  induce  a  disposition  for  peace. 

If  unanimity  in  a  people  could  dispel  delusion,  it  has  been  dis- 
played too  unmistakably  not  to  have  silenced  the  pretence  that  the 
{Southern  States  were  merely  disturbed  by  a  factious  insurrection,  and 
it  must  long  since  have  been  admitted  that  they  were  but  exercising 
their  reserved  right  to  modify  their  own  government  in  such  manner 
as  would  best  secure  their  own  happiness.     But  these  considerations 


29 

have  "been  powerless  to  allay  the  unchristian  hate  of  those,  who,  long 
accustomed  to  draw  large  profits  from  a  union  vith  us,  cannot  control 
the  rage  excite<l  by  the  conviction  that  they  have  by  their  own  folly 
destroyed  the  richest  sources  of  their  prosperity.  They  refuse  even 
to  listen  to  proposals  for  the  01  ly  peace  possible  between  us — a  peace 
which  recognizing  the  impassable  gulf  which  divides  us  may  leave  the 
two  peoples  separately  to  recover  from  the  injuries  inflicted  on  both 
by  the  causeless  war  now  waged  against  us  Having  begun  the  war 
in  direct  violation  of  their  Constitution,  which  forbade  the  attempt  to 
coerce  a  State,  they  have  been  hardened  by  ctime  until  they  no  longer 
attempt  to  veil  their  purpose  to  destroy  the  institutions  and  subvert 
the  sovereignty  and  independence  of  these  Slater.  We  now  knov 
that  the  only  reliable  hope  for  peace  is  in  the  vigor  of  our  resistance, 
as  the  cessation  of  their  hostility  is  only  to  be  expected  from  the 
pressure  of  ttrir  necessities. 

The  patriotism  of  the  people  has  proved  equal  to  every  sacrifice 
demanded  by  their  country's  need.  We  have  been  united  as  a  pt-oplo 
never  were  united  under  like  circumstances  before.  God  has  blessed 
us  with  success  disproportionate  to  our  means,  and,  under  His  divine 
favor,  our  labors  must  at  last  be  crowned  with  the  reward  duo  to  men 
who  have  given  all  they  possessed  to  the  righteous  defence  of  their 
inalienable  rights,  their  homes,  anQ  their  altars. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS, 
Richmond,  December  7,  18G3. 


peanulife* 

PH8.5 


